Sarah vs the Nerd
by chuckaddict
Summary: AU. Sarah Walker is a spy sent undercover to the suburbs with a partner she can't stand. Chuck Bartowski is a nerd who works at his parents' store. Someone's laptop stops working; someone's sent to fix it. What happens next?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** I know, I know, lame title. But I've been trying to find a decent one for like three weeks now… obviously, I failed. So, funny story. I was going to sleep the other day and this idea hit me. I couldn't get it out of my head, so I had to give it a shot and see how it turned out. Well, this is how… I hope you like it. Also, no beta, so every mistake is mine.

Thanks to both **charahtwins** (Javi & Maca) for reading this –at least the first draft- and helping me with some ideas; and to **Aerox,** who helped me with the computer stuff. By the way, I'm sure you've already read their stories, but if you haven't, you need to check them out.

I don't own Chuck, Fringe or any other TV show –or character- mentioned here.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Chapter one <strong>_

It was a hot afternoon. The neighborhood was silent and there was nobody on the street, except for the young, good looking couple who was pulling their stuff out of the moving truck and taking them into their brand new home. Theirs, like every other in the neighborhood, was a big, two-floor house. It had a front yard with green grass cut short and even. The couple's minivan was parked in front of the garage door. The only thing missing was the white picket fence and a few children running around.

"Hey, honey, can you help me with this?" Kyle Anderson asked his wife. He was a tall, dark-haired, blue-eyed, classically handsome guy. A man every woman would look twice if she saw him on the street.

"Sure, babe," answered Eva Anderson, approaching her husband with a broad smile as she tied her long blonde hair in a loose ponytail. The two of them took the chairs from the truck to the dining room. After a few trips, they were done.

"I think that's it, isn't it?" said Kyle, scanning the room and going to check the truck.

His wife followed closely as she commented, "Yeah, I believe it is. I can't believe we're here. I never thought I'd be living in the suburbs."

Her husband chuckled. "Well, I never thought I was going to be able to convince you to move in here in the first place."

Laughing, she replied, "I'm still not sure how you did it." She looked at him with a smile and kissed him sweetly on the lips. "What do you say if we go inside and have some rest? We can order some food and maybe watch a movie…"

He nodded. "Sounds great, let's do that. And then we get to try our brand new bed in our brand new bedroom," he said with a smug smile.

She smiled again and bit her lower lip, her blue eyes sparkling as she started to walk backwards towards the house. "I can't wait," she said as she turned around and kept walking, sensually swaying her hips.

"Man, it's good to be home," Kyle mumbled, following her and locking the door behind him.

After their first night in the new house, Eva woke up early and went downstairs to make breakfast for her husband, as any good housewife would do. She also fed Rex, their golden retriever, who barked and swung his tail happily when he saw her coming. When the omelet was almost done, Kyle entered the kitchen.

"Perfect timing, sweetheart, I was just finishing your breakfast," she smiled and put a plate in front of him as he sat down. He rolled up the sleeves of his plaid pajamas and thanked her, while she poured him a cup of coffee and handed it to him.

"Honey, this is delicious. I think you get better at this every day," he said, winking at her.

She just chuckled and, stifling a yawn, asked him, "So… are you nervous about starting this new job?"

He shook his head. "You know me, I don't get nervous. It's a great opportunity and I'm glad we got a fresh start. This job is much better paid than the one I had back in Chicago, and this way, you get to stay at home." He smiled broadly and added, "And hopefully, soon you'll be taking care of our kids."

She returned his smile. "I'm sure I will. I'm really happy too. I think I needed the change of pace. And I bet our neighbors are great people, I can't wait to meet them."

"Well, maybe we can host a barbecue on Saturday. That would be a good way to socialize," Kyle suggested.

"That's a great idea, Kyle. I knew there was a reason why I married you," she teased as she seductively put a strawberry in her mouth.

"Hey, now, I also give the greatest massages and I can burp the whole alphabet," he said, pretending to be offended.

"Yeah, I remember now. It was definitely the burping thing that made me fall for you," she stated, and they both laughed.

"Well, I should go take a shower and change, I don't wanna be late on my first day," he said. "There's room for one more if you're interested," he added with a mischievous grin.

"Maybe tomorrow if you're a good boy. I still have a lot to unpack," she answered, pointing at the boxes piled in the corner of the kitchen.

"Ok, babe. I'll leave you to it, then." And with that, he climbed the stairs and headed to the bathroom in their bedroom.

Twenty minutes later, Eva was still pulling things out of the boxes when Kyle came down again, this time wearing a dark suit and a white shirt, his hair wet and brushed back, and a dark blue tie in his hand.

"Would you mind giving me a hand? You know I've never been good with this," he shrugged and gave her a sheepish smile.

"Oh, of course, come here." She arranged his tie expertly and straightened his collar. "Done. May I say you look very handsome in that suit?"

"Well, of course you may. I'm glad you like it. I got it for my first day, I wanna impress the boss."

"You will, honey, just be yourself and everybody will love you," she said encouragingly. "I know I do," she added.

Kyle smiled at his wife and kissed her. She put her arms around his neck and moaned, as he deepened the kiss. He pulled her closer to his body, but she stepped back and, out of breath, reminded him, "Honey, new job, remember? We'll have plenty of time for this tonight."

He licked his lips and ran a hand along her back. "Right, you're right." He took a step back and, still having trouble to breathe, told her, "It's just hard to resist you when you look so damn good in the morning."

She smiled at the compliment and walked him to the door. She opened it and they both got outside.

"Have a great day, sweetie," she said, giving him a peck on the lips.

"Thanks, honey, I will," he replied, getting in the car. He waved at her as he drove away.

Eva waited until her husband's car was out of sight and then got into the house again, a smile still plastered on her face. 

* * *

><p>"I don't think this is a good idea, Langston," the woman said from behind her desk.<p>

The man who was standing in front of her answered, "Think about it, Diane. If this goes right, we both get the commendations."

"And what makes you think it's going to go right? There are a thousand variables here and it also could be nothing at all."

The man lifted a single finger and pointed out, "First of all, the intel we've got is good. And, come on, it's not like I'm asking you to lend me an army… I just ask for one man. I'm sure you have at least one doing useless paperwork; I'm just requesting you to send him to work with my agents." He paused, letting the red-haired woman take in his proposal, before he continued. "In the worst case scenario, he'll get a tan. That's never bad, is it?" he charmingly asked.

Diane thought about it. She wouldn't mind to share the credit for catching a terrorist. She wouldn't mind having the Director of the CIA owning her a favor. And, to be honest, she wouldn't have to make a great sacrifice either. She had the perfect man in mind. He'd been pulled out of the field a month ago because of what she secretly referred to as the "Yves Saint-Laurent incident". He definitely had anger management issues, but this was the suburbs; it wasn't like he was going to have the opportunity to stab anyone with a stiletto. _Again_. "Ok, Langston, but I'm doing this as a personal favor."

"And I'm grateful, Diane. I won't forget it. Now, I'd like to meet your guy. We're sending him to pose as a gardener."

Diane couldn't help herself as she burst out laughing. Langston smiled and inquired, "What's so funny?"

Trying to catch her breath and wiping her eyes, she managed to said, "I was just picturing Colonel John Casey going undercover as 'Johnny the gardener'." As soon as those words left her mouth, she started laughing again.

Director Graham joined her, understanding her amusement now that he knew who she was talking about. He thought that they might arrest a terrorist; but even if they didn't, they were going to have their fun. 

* * *

><p>Sarah Walker was fuming. After getting back into the house, she collapsed on the couch. She had closed the curtains so the neighbors wouldn't see her as she tried her best not to scream. Graham was punishing her, she was sure. Otherwise, she didn't understand why on earth he would send her on a mission to the freaking suburbs. Not only the people there creeped her out, always smiling and snooping around each other's business, but she had to pretend to be married to that Larkin jerk. And Graham knew she couldn't stand him, so that had to be it. The bastard hadn't missed a chance to stick his tongue on her throat every time he could; to protect the cover, of course. But there were no cameras in the bedroom –she had checked- and that pervert had spent the night trying to spoon her. As a result, she hadn't slept at all, her back was killing her –because there had been a point in time when he had occupied her side of the bed too and the only thing she could do was tense her body not to fall off the bed, because Bryce fucking Larkin didn't know a thing about sharing-, and she was pretty much furious with everyone and everything.<p>

She wrecked her brain trying to figure out why her boss would do something like this to her, one of his best agents. Maybe it was because she had refused to go on that seduction mission that last time. But there was no way in hell she was going to make out with a 76 year-old, international arms dealer or not. Only to think about it made her cringe.

Or maybe it was because of her last mission with Carina. Things had gotten a little out of hand, but they always did when Carina was involved. If he insisted on sending her on missions with the DEA agent, he should be used to it by now.

She growled internally, barely restraining herself from kicking the coffee table in front of her. In case that being in a mission in the suburbs _and_ with Bryce Larkin wasn't enough, she also had to be careful to never break character, because they hadn't had swept for bugs yet. Graham had told them he was sending a NSA guy to do that. She didn't understand why he had felt the need to involve another government agency on this assignment, but she had stopped trying to comprehend his motives after he sent her to that hell hole. She just hoped they would be able to locate and apprehend this terrorist before she lost her mind and ended up strangling her partner and setting the whole neighborhood on fire.

She was still shaking her head and running her hands through her face when she heard the doorbell. _Why does this happen to me?_ she wondered as she slowly stood up and dragged her feet to the door. Her cover also made her wear stupid clothes like the horrible dress she had on right now. She silently sighed and composed the best smile she could before opening the door.

"Oh, hello," a short, curly haired woman greeted her. She was in her forties, and her perfume was a little strong for Sarah's taste. "I noticed you just moved in and I thought I'd bring you something to welcome you to the neighborhood," she said, putting a plate in front of Sarah's nose, and pushing her a little, indicating her intention to get invited into the house.

Sarah swallowed, praying whoever was listening to give her strength. "Oh, thank you so much! Please, come on in. My name's Eva, Eva Anderson," she sweetly said, extending her hand, which the woman shook animatedly while almost stepping on her feet when she entered the house.

"I'm Lanie, and I live right across the street. My husband, Bob is an architect."

She wasn't going to analyze what was the relevance of Bob's profession to the conversation they were having, because she knew logic wasn't going to work in a place where everything seemed upside down. "Oh, that's uh, that's great. My husband, Kyle, is an accountant, and I'm a teacher, but I'm taking some time off now."

"Let me guess, you're trying to start a family, aren't you?" Lanie asked knowingly, as she made herself comfortable on the couch.

Sarah clenched her teeth, but managed to answer with a smile, "Yeah, we are. Kyle got a job offer that he couldn't refuse so we moved in here from Chicago. And it seems like the right time for us."

"Oh, sweetie, I totally get it. Before my Bob and I had kids, I was a graphic designer. But, you know how it is, women belong to the house and it's men's work to bring home the bacon."

Sarah almost choked when she heard that. However, she stopped herself from giving her a lecture about gender equality and the role of women in the twenty-first century; after all, she had a part to play. "Of course, I know. Kyle and I've been talking about it a lot lately and we both agree that it would be the best for everyone if I stay home and take care of the house and the kids." She was sure this mission was going to get her an ulcer, at the least.

Apparently, this Lanie woman had nothing to do, because she stayed for about forty minutes, talking about things Sarah had no interest on hearing. When she finally stood up and said she had to go back, it was near noon.

Sarah had lost her appetite. She felt like there was only room for the boiling anger she was feeling in her stomach right now. She glanced to the apple pie the woman had brought and she felt like she was going to vomit.

She had thought this mission was going to be difficult, having to pretend being married to a guy she despised and living in a place she could only compare to hell. But after her first morning in the suburbs, she knew it was going to be unbearable. 

* * *

><p>Bryce was having a great time in the office. Basically, his job was to do nothing and follow the leads he and Sarah got on the neighbors. But, because it was their first day, he could afford being seated in a very comfortable chair, with his feet resting on his desk and throwing a ball against the wall. He had brought his iPod and he was listening to the Black Eyed Peas while thinking about his partner. <em>My smoking hot partner<em>, he thought with a smirk. He had never worked with agent Sarah Walker before, but he had read her file, and there were some impressive, albeit scary stuff in there. What he knew for sure was that she was one of the best. And one of the best looking too. The first time he had seen her, a week ago, he'd decided he was going to get her. Bryce Larkin always got the girl. He was well aware of the way he looked and how much women seemed to like it. And, in case that wasn't enough, he had developed some charming ways that guaranteed his success in every attempt to get into somebody's pants. Until now, his record was impeccable. Agent Walker had been… reluctant, though, and even if that didn't happen too often –or ever, for that matter-, he wasn't worried about it. The woman clearly needed to loosen up a bit and learn to have some fun, but he was sure that, before they had caught the terrorist, he was going to be able to convince her. After all, he never failed a mission.

The cover they had been given couldn't be more perfect for his purposes, and he had to smile when he remembered the way she had looked the night before. She was wearing this sexy, pink nightie, which ended well above the knee. Her hair was loose and she smelled like heaven. Of course, she had tried to make him think she wasn't interested by turning her back to him and settling in the farthest end of the bed. However, he knew better, so, pretending to be asleep he had rolled over onto her side, until he could feel her incredibly toned body against his. Oh, yeah, Bryce Larkin knew smooth.

He smiled lasciviously as he thought about her… assets. She would definitely make his top three. He only hoped that, once she had succumbed to his charm, this terrorist took his time to make an appearance. He wanted to take his time with this one. And he was positive they were both going to enjoy the ride. He smirked at the analogy and turned the volume up. So far, he was loving this assignment. 

* * *

><p>Sarah had never been this bored in her entire life. She had watched TV, read a gossip magazine –and she hated those- and worked out in the room the CIA had turned into a gym. Graham had called and said the NSA guy would be arriving that afternoon. That was good because he was supposed to sweep the house for bugs, and if it turned out to be clean, she wouldn't have to put up with Larkin's groping anymore. At least from the door to the inside, she would get to be herself. And the real Sarah Walker was dying to put that pervert in his place.<p>

She heard the doorbell and she almost ran to the door. When she opened it, she found herself standing face to face with a large man. He had blue eyes, dark hair and a small scar in his right cheek.

"Miss Anderson?" he asked.

She cocked her head and said, "Yes, that's me."

He extended his hand. "Nice to meet you ma'am, I'm John, the gardener?"

Although he was smiling –or at least, showing his teeth-, she could hear the disgust hidden behind those words. She imagined 'gardener' was to a Colonel what 'housewife' was to a CIA agent. Feeling sympathy for him, she shook his hand and invited him in.

When she closed the door, his demeanor changed immediately. He stood there proudly, and handed her a piece of paper. _'Colonel John Casey, NSA.'_

Sarah nodded and helped him set the equipment he needed to do his job. While she followed him closely, they talked about plants, fertilizers and other stuff, in case anyone was listening. She watched as the Colonel swept every inch of the house, and she couldn't be less than impressed at his thoroughness. About an hour later, he finally said, "All clear."

She let out a relieved sigh. In fact, she didn't laugh out loud because that would've made her look unprofessional, but that was exactly what she wanted to do. "Thank God," she said, "that's great news. Now I can properly introduce myself. Agent Sarah Walker, CIA," she added.

He only grunted, and she lifted a single eyebrow, but didn't say anything. "So, how is this going to work?"

He lifted his chin and reluctantly told her, "I'm staying here, at the guest room outside the house, and we try to figure out which one of these freaks is a terrorist so we can arrest them and go home."

She nodded. "It works for me. My partner, Agent Larkin, should be coming back soon, and the three of us can discuss the plan together. Now I'll show you to your new accommodations. You may want to make sure there are no bugs in there too."

He grunted again, and she started to get pissed. It wasn't like she was enjoying their situation either, but at least she was polite enough to communicate with actual words.

She left him in his room to get comfortable and went back inside the house. A few moments later, the door flew open and a radiant looking Bryce Larkin announced, "Honey, I'm home!"

She clenched her jaw, but smiled a little. After all, she had been waiting for this moment since she had found out there were no bugs in the house. She just watched him as he tossed his briefcase on the couch and approached her with a smug grin. He grabbed her by her waist and gave her a hot, wet kiss. But this time, she was ready. Lifting her knee, she hit him in the groin and he let her go right away, with a painful cry.

"What… are… you doing?" he let out between agonizing pants.

"That's my way to inform you that there are no bugs in the house and I'm not going to stand your groping anymore. And tonight, you're sleeping on the guest room."

He straightened up and weakly protested, "But… the cover… we're supposed to be married!"

"Nobody's going to get in the house in the middle of the night just to see if we're sleeping together or not. And if someone does, it's because they already had their suspicions, so we would be screwed anyway. From now on, this is as close as we're going to be while in here," she said, pointing at the current distance between them. "Oh, by the way, the NSA guy is here. He's going to be staying at the guest room outside the house. Once he's settled he's coming in here to discuss our plan. The sooner we catch this terrorist the sooner we get to get the hell out of here," she added.

The meeting with Casey and Larkin was… interesting. Sarah could see she was not the only one in the room who couldn't stand her partner. Every time he spoke up, Casey narrowed his eyes dangerously at him, as he was waiting for him to say something that would justify strangling him. But that hadn't happened –yet- and the three of them had decided they would put the plan in motion first thing in the morning. The Colonel was just as desperate as she was to go home, and that was an advantage. If they were lucky, they wouldn't have to wait too long before finding out which one of the neighbors was a criminal. Until then, though, they would have to find a way to peacefully coexist. If she was lucky, she wouldn't lose her mind in the process. 

* * *

><p>The next morning was remarkably different from the first one. Bryce woke up and went downstairs, where there was no breakfast being made by no gleeful fake-wife. Sarah had made him sleep on the guest room. The bed was not comfortable like the one she had claimed as hers, and his bruised ego had made sleeping a little harder than it should've been. And now he had to make his own breakfast. Ok, so maybe Walker was a little more… <em>unwilling<em> than he had originally thought she would be. But the way he saw things, there were two possible reasons why she would make him sleep in another bed: one, because she was attracted to him and it was difficult for her to stay professional while he was around; or two, because she didn't want anything to do with him. Of course, throughout the night, he had convinced himself it had to be the first one. In the end, no woman was able to resist Bryce Larkin's charm, and Agent Walker was not an exception. He would just have to work harder on winning her over. He smiled as he started making breakfast. After he was done, she would be begging him to take her.

The sunlight coming through the open curtains woke Sarah up. She was lying in the middle of the bed, enjoying the fact that she was alone. Which was weird, because, most of the time, it was the other way around. _Better alone than in the wrong company_, she thought. She was relieved she didn't have to share the bed with Bryce anymore, but they were still married for the cover. And even if they didn't have to pretend when they were inside the house, to find the terrorist they would have to come out and socialize with their neighbors. She growled thinking that if she knew him –and she definitely knew his kind- he was definitely going to take advantage of that. At least now she could beat him up once they got _home_. She wanted nothing more than staying in bed all morning, but she had work to do. And that work included getting to know as many lazy housewives as she could. She winced at the thought of spending any time with those pretentious little… _individuals_, but there was nothing she could do about it. She finally got the strength to drag herself out of bed, thinking that once this was all over, she was going to take a vacation. She would go to somewhere sunny where she would be doing nothing but sipping Mai Tais and working on her tan.

When she got to the kitchen, Bryce was waiting for her with that smile of his that made her want to shoot him in the knee.

"Good morning, Eva," he said.

She gave him a murderous look but kept quiet.

"Ok, ok, fine, I'll call you Sarah if that's what you want."

She just stared at him, contempt written all over her face. Even that idiot should be able to notice that.

"Fine, Agent Walker. I just wanted to apologize if I took our cover too far. But I'm a pro and I get things done. I promise that I won't touch you when we're alone, but we need to sell these people," he pointed to the front door, "that we're happily married, and that's not going to work if you get all Ice Queen around me."

Sarah thought the vein in her forehead was going to explode. She could actually feel the boiling rage inside her. Would it really be so bad for the mission if Eva Anderson suddenly turned into a widow? Who did he think he was to call her _that_? She knew that was the way some people in the Agency referred to her as. The truth was, she hated it. And it sort of hurt her too. But she had always told herself that you didn't get to work thirteen years for the CIA if you weren't cold and distant. She had spent almost half of her life doing this job, and she couldn't even remember how it was to be different. And she was one of the best, so that had to mean something. But the asshole had a point: they would still have to pretend being married in front of other people, so she should better figure out a system to do it without ending up stabbing her partner.

There was something she wanted to make clear first, though. Walking slowly until she was next to him, she swiftly grabbed his arm and twisted it in an unnatural way behind his back. He let out a yelp. She ignored him and said, "Don't think I don't know what you're doing, Larkin. I know your kind and I have no intentions to have anything to do with you, not now, not ever. I will, however, do my job, even if it involves pretending to care about someone I actually loathe," she eased up her hold and he let out a relieved breath. But she soon applied force again and, in a hiss, added, "But if you _ever_ call me that again, I promise you, I'm going to make you regret it." She finally let go of him and, while he massaged his arm, she realized that Casey had been watching them.

When she looked at him defiantly, he just smirked and said, "I guess the honeymoon ended up a little sooner for the Andersons," and then turned around and headed outside to his room.

She tried not to smile at that and went back upstairs. She only came back down when she heard Bryce's car leaving.

She sighed heavily as she heard the doorbell. She knew this was bound to happen, but that didn't make it any better. She stood before the closed door and inhaled deeply. Knowing that she was as ready as she was going to be, she plastered a fake smile in her face and opened the door. Just like the day before, she was greeted by another cheerful woman with too much time in her hands. Once again, Sarah invited her in and prepared to hear a bunch of stuff she didn't even care about. But she had to do her job, so she paid attention to every word the woman said. And there were _so_ many.

She was blonde, a little too skinny and she had obviously visited a plastic surgeon a few times. She was married to Craig, who was a successful lawyer in a very important firm. She had two kids, Tracy and Carl, both in college. Tracy was majoring in Art History and Carl in chemistry.

Sarah learned about this woman's routine, the names of her three Chihuahuas, but nothing remotely relevant for her mission. After an hour and a half, and just when she was getting so desperate that the thought of pretending to have a seizure just to get Vicky to shut up actually crossed her mind, she announced she had to leave to her doctor's appointment. Sarah was sure the nose was next.

She made herself a sandwich for lunch, as she read the files they had of the people living in the neighborhood. The truth was, aside from being insufferable, everybody seemed to be clean. She was starting to doubt there was any terrorist activity going on there.

She was thinking about this when Casey came into the house again, this time dressed with some old jeans and a white tight t-shirt. Her eyes widened at the sight, and before she could ask about it, he shrugged and said, "I have a cover to sell too."

She smiled a little as she watched him make himself a sandwich. "So, did you learn anything useful from you visit?"

Sarah snorted. "Oh, yes, I learned that, if you go to Dr. Whale's office, you get the second implant for free," she replied dryly.

Casey grunted. "I mean, anything useful for our assignment."

Sarah shook her head and sighed heavily. "No, not at all. I've only met two women, but I seriously doubt they have the brains to be terrorists."

"Well, then we have to keep looking," he said. "Hopefully you'll find something useful in that barbecue you're hosting this weekend."

She winced a little at his reminder, but still nodded. "Yeah, I really hope so. I know it's still soon to make any big developments, but at least we should be able to eliminate a few people from the suspect list."

After Casey finished his sandwich, he told her he was going to be working in the front of the house. He mumbled something about trees and bushes and headed out, leaving Sarah alone and with nothing to do again. She turned on her computer and, almost immediately, it started to make a loud noise. It had been giving her trouble for quite some time now, and she thought maybe it was time to get another one. For now, she would only check her emails. She was glad to find one from Graham, but just when she was trying to download the attached file, the laptop died. She tried to restart it, but nothing happened. She pulled the battery off and then on again, and nothing. She waited for about ten minutes and tried to turn it on. It didn't work. She was starting to lose her patience when she thought she could call someone to get it fixed. She grabbed the phone book and looked for a store of some kind that send people to costumers' houses. She found one and dialed the number. A female voice answered, and after greeting her, asked what she needed. She explained what had happened and the woman said someone would be at her house in about thirty minutes. She thanked her and hung up.

Having half an hour to kill, she turned on the TV. She started surfing the channels until she found some movie about alternate universes or something like that. It was intriguing, and the old man was quite funny. She was really immersed on the plot when she heard a knock on the door.

_It must be the computer guy_. She walked towards the door and opened it. She wasn't ready for what she saw. She was kind of expecting a guy with thick glasses, plaid shirt and a pocket protector, but the man standing in front of her was nothing like that. Ok, so the pocket protector _was_ there, but he wasn't wearing any glasses. He had short, brown hair, but she could see the light waves in it. His eyes were brown, and they shouldn't have been anything special, but she was having trouble to tear her own from them. He was very tall and thin, but his shoulders were broad and his white shirt clung in all the right places. A grey tie, black slacks and a pair of black Chuck Taylors completed the outfit. Combined with the short-sleeved shirt, they made him look quite attractive, in a cute, nerdy way.

He smiled brightly and lifted his briefcase. She could only look at him as he asked lightly, "Computer emergency?" 

* * *

><p>Sarah didn't know exactly how long she had been staring at him, but it must have been at least for a minute, because his smile faltered and he put his briefcase down again.<p>

"Miss, are you ok?"

She was brought back by the sound of his voice, and blushing, she stammered, "Uh… yeah, yeah, I'm fine. And it's Mrs.; Mrs. Anderson. Please, come on in." _What the hell, Walker?_ She chastised herself. She let him in and closed the door behind him. She walked towards the kitchen, but he didn't follow her. Instead, he stood there respectfully, waiting for her instructions.

She grabbed the laptop and signaled him to join her in the living room. She set the computer in the coffee table and told him what had happened.

"Ok, sounds like it over heated," he said. "Do you mind if I…" he trailed off, pointing to the blank screen.

"No, please, go ahead," she answered.

"Another Fringe fan? I love that show!" he said cheerfully, as he sat on the couch and pulled out a screwdriver.

She thought she had no idea what he was talking about while she watched as he started to disarm her laptop. Then she heard the voices coming from the TV and realized he must've been talking about that.

"Oh, no, I was watching it because I had nothing else to do. I thought it was a movie," she admitted, slightly ashamed.

He smiled and glanced at her. "Oh, well, you should watch it anyway. This is a season two episode, one of my favorites from that one. If you want to catch up, we sell the DVDs at the store."

She barely had time to read the newspaper every day, so catching up with a TV show wasn't exactly one of her priorities, as interesting as it may have been. "Uh, I don't really have a lot of time to watch TV," she said.

"Well, that's the beauty of DVDs, isn't it? You watch them when you can. And for the new episodes, there's DVR."

In an impulse, she gave in, "Well, maybe I get those then."

He looked at her with a giant grin that, in any other person, would have looked stupid, but it suited him. "Awesome! They're airing season four right now. If you think this episode is a little crazy, you won't believe the final episode of season three. After I watched it, I spent like half an hour yelling at the TV. It was amazing," he told her excitedly.

She quirked an eyebrow, convinced that anyone who yelled at a TV couldn't be in their right mind. She didn't say anything, though, and just waited until he spoke again.

"Oh, just what I feared. This model doesn't have a heat sink installed for the CPU. Your laptop overheated and the processor burned up," he said, shaking his head.

"Is that bad? Can you fix it?" she asked.

"Well, you would need to change the processor…" he paused as he kept evaluating the damages, "and the motherboard. This is an old model, from at least two years ago, is that right?"

"Yeah, I think so," Sarah said, not knowing what did it have to do with anything.

"Mmm… my advice would be to get a new one. There's no damage on the hard drive, so we could transfer all your files without a problem. If you decide to fix this one, it's going to cost you about the same money than a new laptop."

Sarah sighed. It seemed that nothing could go right in this mission. After all of this, she was sure she would never set foot in LA again.

"Ok, seems like I have no choice here," she said, with a tiny smile of resignation.

"Well, you can always come to the store, I could personally help you get one that suits your needs," he offered.

"I'd like that…" she read the name on his pocket protector, "Chuck."

He grinned again and gave her his card. "You can call me to make sure I'm not out in an install or something like that."

"Thank you."

"Well, I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help, Mrs. Anderson," he stated, heading to the door.

"It's ok. I'll call you tomorrow," she promised as she opened the door.

"Ok, have a nice day," he said, and she watched him walk towards a small car, painted white and red, with the words "Nerd Herd" written on the passenger's door. He got into the car and waved at her. She couldn't help but smile as she returned the gesture.

Once inside the house, it took her a few minutes to realize she was still smiling. She also noticed she was still holding his card. What left her completely horrified was the fact that she had promised to call him the next day. And she had meant it.

Some people could say she was ruthless, cold and implacable, and they would've been right. She was a spy, and that was all she had, the only constant in her life, the thing that kept her going. And she was a hell of a spy. So when she was on a mission, there wasn't anything that could distract her from her objective. Until now. _The suburbs are already messing with my mind_, she thought. Of course she wasn't going to call him. Why would she? She could get a new laptop in any other store and she didn't need anyone's personal assistance.

Against her better judgment, though, she kept the card. 

* * *

><p>Charles Bartowski walked into the store and headed to the front desk, where Jeff was helping a costumer who seemed to have a problem with his Mac. Morgan was trying to make a sell, although the short brunette seemed more interested in his jokes than the iPod touch she was holding. He smiled inwardly. <em>Way to go, budd<em>y.

"Hey, Chuck," he heard his father calling.

He turned around with a smile to greet him, "Hi, dad! I thought you weren't coming today."

Stephen waved his hand dismissively. "I already told your mother, I'm fine. It was just a cold, and I have a store to run."

"Dad, I can take care of the store if you're not feeling ok, you know that…"

"I know, son, but I'm fine, really. Your mother worries too much, that's all." Changing the subject, he inquired, "You just got here?"

"Yeah, we had a call today. Nice neighborhood, for a change. And the lady was pretty nice too. She's coming to get a new laptop one of these days."

"Great job, Charles." His tone changed and became conspiratorially as he leaned closer and said, "So… you said the lady was nice, uh?"

Chuck groaned. "Oh, not you too!"

"What?" Stephen said, "It's just an innocent question!"

"It's not innocent, and you know it. I would've expected this from Ellie or mom, but certainly not from you." He shot his father a harsh look and then added, "And for the record, she's married."

"That's a shame." Seeing the look on his son's face, Stephen added, "Well, you can't really blame us, Charles. I mean, you're thirty and still single. When I was your age…"

Chuck interrupted him. He'd heard this speech too many times and he knew it by heart. "I know, I know, you and mom already had Ellie and me and you were happy. The difference is, you had already found the love of your life. I haven't."

"Ok, ok… but just so you know, your mother would love to have a few grandkids running around the house."

Chuck narrowed his eyes at his dad. "Then it's a good thing Ellie has a daughter _and_ a son, isn't it?" he asked.

Stephen grinned. "Well, the house is pretty big, you know?"

Chuck sighed in resignation. He was never going to win this argument. "Ok, ok, I promise, dad. As soon as I find a nice enough woman I'll ask her to be the mother of the many, many children my parents want me to have."

Laughing, Stephen put a hand on his son's shoulder. "Just don't tell your mother that."

Chuck laughed too, "Are you kidding me? She'll have my ass. The woman has a freakishly accurate aim, I'll probably end up impaled to a door with a kitchen knife or something."

"I'm glad to know you're prudent. I'll be at my office. I was hoping to get some work done before your mother figured out I came here and dragged me back to bed. And not in a good way."

"God, dad, seriously?" Chuck said, wincing at his words.

Stephen just chuckled and headed to his office. Chuck was still shaking his head when he was startled by a cheerful Morgan. "Hey, Chuck!"

"Gah-Morgan! Hey, buddy, how was that sell?"

The short-bearded man smirked smugly as he showed his best friend the piece of paper he was holding in his right hand. "I'd say it went pretty well. She bought the iPod _and_ she left me her number."

Chuck smiled approvingly. "Nice! Are you planning to call her?"

"Of course I am. That reminds me, Chuck, you're going to have to find yourself a girl so we can double-date," Morgan said, patting his back.

Chuck clenched his teeth. _I can't catch a break_. He smiled anyway, "Ok, buddy, I'll work on that. But right now I have to go and catch up with some work."

"Oh, sure. Go do your thing, I'll see you at home." With that, Morgan headed to the Nerd Herd desk and left Chuck standing in the middle of the store, wondering why everyone seemed so interested in his love life all of a sudden. Shrugging, he decided he didn't care.

He headed to his own office, and tried to focus in all the boring paperwork he had to do. But his mind kept drifting to his earlier visit to the suburbs. More specifically, to the woman who lived there. The _married_ woman, he reminded himself, slightly ashamed of the thoughts that were crossing his mind at the moment. But, honestly, who could blame him? She had to be one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. And she seemed nice. He smiled at the idea of seeing her again when she came to the store to find a new laptop. And, again, he scolded himself for his excitement at the mere prospect of seeing her. Shaking his head, he just assumed his sudden interest was because of his family's –and now, friend's- pressure. Ever since Ellie had had kids, all eyes were focused on him. According to his mom, now it was his turn. And, to be honest, he didn't really have a problem with that. He had always wanted a family. But after a few failed relationships, he wasn't sure he would ever find a woman who could love him for who he was. After all, who would fall in love with a nerd like him?

Sighing heavily, he tried to concentrate in the new merchandise inventory he was supposed to go over. It was a hard task, though, when he kept thinking about a pair of blue eyes and the adorable shy smile their owner had been sporting as she waved him goodbye. 

* * *

><p>Sarah had been doing some spy work for the past two days. Even if <em>spy work<em> in this particular mission meant getting to know most of her neighbors. On the bright side, Larkin hadn't been giving her any trouble since the _talk_ they had had two days ago. They had also invited the entire neighborhood to the barbecue they were hosting the next day. With any luck, they would finally make some progress. Nothing they had found until date was useful for their assignment, and they weren't any closer to find out who the terrorist was. _If_ there was a terrorist in the neighborhood, something Sarah was starting to doubt. There was one thing that sort of worried her, though, and it didn't have anything to do with the mission. She had been able to read Graham's email through her cellphone, but she still hadn't gotten a new computer. And even if she tried to convince herself it was because she didn't have time to go shopping, she knew that was not it. She reached into her pocket and pulled the card out. Biting her lower lip, she debated if she should call the number printed on it for the millionth time in two days. She knew it wasn't a good idea; but she _did _need a new laptop, after all, and _he_ had offered to help her pick one –which was a good thing, since she didn't know anything about computers. Making up her mind, she stood up and headed to the door, after leaving Bryce a note saying she was going out.

Standing in the middle of the parking lot after locking her car, she took a deep breath and walked through the automatic doors. Almost immediately, her gaze focused on the main desk, where the curly-haired guy was playing with a little girl. _He has a child, he has a child_, was all she could think while she stood there, frozen, at the entrance of the store. A thought crossed her mind: he was probably married too. She was about to leave, when common sense returned and she remembered that she was supposed to be married as well. And that she shouldn't care about his relationship status, at all. She was there just to get a new laptop, and that was all. So she plastered a smile on her face, and approached him.

"I hope I'm not interrupting," she said, grinning at him.

Her eyes widened when he almost dropped the little girl he was holding. "Ah!" he almost shouted. Trying to recover, he repositioned the blonde child on his knees and looked at her. "I… no, no, you're not, of course you're not. Did you, uh… call? I've been having some phone troubles lately; maybe I should check my messages. Unless you didn't call, of course, which means I should stop talking now," he said, blushing a little at his last words.

She smiled again, this time genuinely. She found his little ramble adorable. "No, I didn't call. Sorry about that. I've been very busy these past few days, but now that I was in the neighborhood I thought I'd stop by and see if you were able to help me find that new laptop," she lied. She would never admit, not even under torture, that she had been thinking about him way more than she should've had. The creased card she held in her pocket served as proof of that.

"Oh, sure, let me just return this little one to her rightful owners," he jokingly said, standing up and waving at a tall brunette, who was standing a few feet away, immersed in a conversation with an older man. The woman noticed and headed towards them. Chuck turned to the little girl and told her, "Uncle Chuck has to help this lady find a computer now, pumpkin. Would you like to stay with mommy?" The little girl smiled and nodded, and Chuck gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Sarah almost didn't notice the brunette standing next to her until Chuck introduced her. The truth was, a –not so- little part of her felt relieved when she realized the child was not his. And she still had this funny feeling on her stomach, after seeing their cute exchange. "Mrs. Anderson, this is Eleanor Bartowski, my sister, and Clara's mother."

His voice seemed to bring her out of her musings, and, turning to the woman, she quickly said, "Nice to meet you, and please, it's Eva."

Chuck's sister smiled politely and said, "It's nice to meet you too. Well, I'm leaving you with my brother then." Turning to face him, she added, "Dinner tonight, my place. Mom and dad are coming too." And, after shooting him a serious look, she walked away with her daughter.

Chuck swallowed. He had learned through the years that, if Ellie gave him that look, he was in trouble. He vaguely wondered what he had done this time to deserve it, but he suddenly remembered he had a… _client_.

"So, how about we go find you a laptop?" he said, grinning at her.

She smiled too. "Sure."

She followed him, and spent the next fifteen minutes trying to understand what he was saying. She ended up getting one that, in his words, "was totally awesome". Chuck led her to the front desk, and she paid for the laptop with her credit card. When she was about to say goodbye, though, he asked her to wait there and disappeared behind the shelves. He came back holding three DVD cases. She tried to hide her smile when she remembered the conversation they'd had about that TV show, feeling stupidly giddy because he had remembered it too. "You can have these too," he said, "for free. I thought you may want to catch up… you know, when you have some time," he finished awkwardly.

She smiled brightly at his gesture. "Thank you. I will."

He broke the awkward silence by saying, "Well, uh… you know, you have my card. If you ever need anything, just give me a call. And I hope you like the show, it's pretty awesome."

"Thanks. I really appreciate it. And I'm sure I'll love it." She swallowed. She realized she didn't want to walk away, because that would probably meant that she would never get to see him again. She also realized that she'd been having a good time with him, something that didn't happen to her very often. For the first time in her life, she wished she had a boring, normal life. She wished she could really be a teacher, or a dentist, or even a dog walker, and not a spy forced to lie about everything to everyone, including nice guys like Chuck. But she was aware that the best thing she could do was to disappear from his life. So she just ignored her instincts, that were screaming to her to do something, anything to make sure she'd see him again, and instead she looked at him and said, "Goodbye, Chuck." Before he could answer, she was rushing to the door, afraid that she might change her mind if she saw his eyes one more time.

Chuck stood there, shocked by her behavior. He could've sworn he had seen something very similar to regret in her eyes before she run away. After that, he was sure he wouldn't be seeing her again. And he hated to admit he was thoroughly disappointed by that prospect. He glanced at his watch and realized it was almost seven pm. When he looked around he was surprised to see he was the only one in the store, so he gathered his stuff and left. Twenty minutes later, he was knocking on his sisters' door.

Everybody was already there. After he greeted his parents, his brother in law and his niece and nephew, Ellie called him from the kitchen. "Hey, sis!" he cheerfully said, leaning in to hug her. The look she gave him made him stop dead in his tracks. "Ok, what did I do now?"

She snorted. "If you don't know, then I'm not going to be the one to point it out."

"Ellie, I really don't know what you're talking about. Would you please tell me?" Chuck was starting to worry. His sister rarely got _that_ mad at him.

Ellie turned around to face him. "Seriously, Chuck? A married woman?" she almost screamed.

Chuck's eyes widened as his face blushed. Ok, so _maybe_ he had thought about it. But he would never get involved with a married woman. He was a decent person, after all, and he was offended his own sister thought that little of him. "What? What do you mean 'a married woman', Ellie? I was only helping her. Last time I checked, clients didn't need to be single for me to help them!"

Ellie took a step closer and hissed, "Oh, please, I saw the way you were looking at each other." His eyes widened again. So he hadn't imagined that! He put that little piece of information away, and concentrated on his sister's little speech. She sighed, trying to calm down. "Look, it's your life, and nobody wants you to be happy more than me. But please, think about what you're doing, Chuck."

Chuck clenched his jaw. He was angry, and slightly ashamed, because she had obviously noticed he was attracted to Eva. _Mrs. Anderson_. Taking a deep breath, he said, "Ellie, I don't know what you think you saw, but I can assure you nothing happened and nothing will _ever_ happen. I'm not that guy. And quite frankly, I thought you knew that already."

Ellie stared at her brother in shock. Of course she _knew_ he wasn't that guy. And, yes, maybe she was overreacting. But she was only trying to look after him, and she didn't want him to get hurt. "You're right… you're right, Chuck, I'm sorry. I… I was just trying to protect you…"

Chuck smiled a little, his guilt increasing with every passing second. "I don't need you to protect me, Ellie, I'm a grown up, if you haven't noticed."

"I know, I know… I guess old habits die hard."

He chuckled. "Hard enough to feel the pain, yes."

She slapped him playfully on the shoulder. "So, we're ok?"

He nodded. "Sure." He was looking forward to change the subject, so he added, "But I'm getting hungry and people are wondering why we are taking so long. We better go if we want to avoid any questions. I know I do."

Aside from the earlier altercation, everything went smoothly that night. It was late when Chuck finally stepped into the apartment he shared with Morgan. He took a shower and went straight to bed. However, despite being exhausted, he couldn't sleep.

All the way across town, Sarah couldn't sleep either. She ran her hands over her face one more time. She couldn't stop thinking about Chuck. It was ridiculous, and a little pathetic, to be honest. Those things never happened to her and she was getting annoyed. She needed to focus on her mission, and she needed to do it now. Sarah Walker did not get distracted, especially by something as mundane and juvenile as a stupid crush. She growled again as she rolled over onto her back. Seeing that she wouldn't be getting any sleep that night, she got up and went downstairs. Maybe some work out would help her release her frustration. 

* * *

><p>After another long, boring day, Sarah was getting ready for the barbecue. She had made enough potato salad to feed an army, and, after a sleepless night, she was ready to collapse in bed. However, their neighbors were going to be arriving soon, so a nap was out of the question. Casey had mowed the lawn of the backyard, not without some whining and complaining, but at least he had done it. And she didn't want to go outside to see how Bryce was doing. She figured he would be alright; after all, he <em>was<em> a trained agent, and this was only a barbecue.

A while later, guests started to arrive. Many of them had brought pies and the kitchen table was full of bottles of wine and desserts. _I can always get wasted_, Sarah thought, staring longingly at a bottle of chardonnay. Of course she wasn't seriously considering it, but she really needed a drink after the week she'd had. Instead, she forced herself to go to the backyard and socialize with her neighbors.

Ten minutes later, while she was talking with some of the women, she heard Casey calling her from inside the house. She excused herself and went to see what he wanted.

"Is everything alright?" she asked, stepping into the kitchen.

Casey put a finger against his mouth and showed her the bug he'd just found. Sarah's eyes widened. Someone was definitely spying on them, and it had to be one of their neighbors. Now they knew there _was_ a criminal among them, but they still had no clue about who was it. She watched as Casey stepped into it. She gave him a questioning look. "What?" he said, shrugging. "You know any other fancy way to destroy it?"

She just smiled and went back outside. She spotted Bryce talking to a large group of men and made her way towards them. As soon as she got there, Bryce snaked an arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him. Suppressing a growl, she feigned a smile and rested her head on his shoulder. "Gentlemen, let me introduce you to my wife, Eva," he graciously said.

Some of them nodded approvingly, and some others just stared lustfully at her. One of them even gave Bryce a high five. Chuckling, Bryce turned and winked at her and it took her all her spy training not to punch him when she saw the smug grin he was sporting. "It's nice to meet you." Turning to Bryce, she said, "Can I talk to you in private, _honey_?"

He grinned at her. "Of course, sweetheart." And, taking advantage that they were in public, he gave her a peck on the lips. She grabbed his arm with more strength than strictly necessary, and dragged him until they were far enough not to be heard. She glared at him and said, "Casey found a bug in the kitchen. They must have put it on a tray or a bottle. Someone is definitely up to something."

"Ok, what do you want me to do? It's not like we can ask them who's trying to spy on us."

"I know that. I wanted to know if you'd discovered something useful."

"No, not yet. I'm trying to earn their trust first. It doesn't look like it's going to be so difficult, they seem to like me already," he said with a cheerful smirk.

"Yeah, they look like your kind of people," she replied dryly.

He smiled. "Thank you."

She smiled back. "That wasn't a compliment."

He rolled his eyes and walked away, leaving her standing there. He was on his way to the guys when he was intercepted by a blonde, attractive woman. "Hi, there. I don't think we've been introduced yet," she said, running a hand through his shoulder.

Bryce smiled. _I still got it_. "No, we haven't. I'm Kyle Anderson, nice to meet you," he replied, extending his hand to her.

She shook it while she introduced herself. "I'm Sylvia Arculin. Can I let you in on a little secret about your neighbors, Mr. Anderson?" He lifted his eyebrows in a questioning fashion. "They bore me."

"Oh, is that right?" he asked.

"Yeah. But you, on the other hand, seem very interesting." She took a step closer and looked up to him. "Perhaps you and I could get together sometime. Maybe engage in something a little more… stimulating?" she said in a sultry voice.

Bryce grinned. "I would like that very much, Sylvia. But there's just one little problem," he showed her his ring finger, adorned with a golden wedding band, "I'm married."

She chuckled. "Congratulations, Mr. Anderson, but who isn't? My husband's right over there. Listen… Kyle," she said, "I live just across the street. So, call me when the honeymoon's over." Shooting him one last look, Sylvia headed towards her husband. She put an arm around his back and turned around and winked at Bryce. He gulped. He had to admit, that was an enticing offer, but he was on a mission, and he couldn't risk its success just to get laid. So, sighing heavily, he grabbed a beer and went back to do his job. 

* * *

><p>The next day, Bryce was delighted to discover that he might actually have the opportunity to accept his neighbor's offer. For the mission's sake, of course. It was a nice Sunday afternoon and the three spies were now sitting at the kitchen table. Sarah was the first to break the silence, after Bryce told her and Casey about his plan.<p>

"So you want to sleep with this woman," she said, a hint of annoyance in her voice. She couldn't believe this guy.

"I'm willing to do the sacrifice, yes, Agent Walker. It's a win/win situation," Bryce answered with a tiny smile.

"Well, excuse me if I'm too slow, but I'm failing to see one of the wins, Larkin," she dryly stated.

Casey snorted. "I thought the same, Walker, but he's got a point. This morning, I pulled a fingerprint out of the bug, and ran it through the data base. I just got a match. This," he said, showing her a photograph, "is the guy who planted it. Recognize him?"

"Yeah, he was here yesterday. What else did you find out?"

"He's a former CIA psi-ops." Sarah's eyebrows shot up at this last bit of information.

"And," Bryce added, "I ran his bank records. Turns out he recently bought a large quantity of this Infiniband Data Line. The same stuff we use to tap into the Agency's intranet. We think he's hacking into the government servers. So _someone_ has to get into that house and onto that computer. I thought I'd do it myself, but if you want to do it, be my guest. I didn't think he was your type, though, he looks like a lumberjack."

Sarah glared at him. "No, it's ok. You can do it. She does look like _your_ type, after all."

Casey rolled his eyes at their exchange. "Listen, Larkin, you do whatever you want to do with this woman, just don't forget you're on a mission. You need to get into her husband's PC and see if you can find anything to incriminate him. Once we get the proof we need, we're out of here."

Sarah nodded in agreement. She wanted nothing more than to finish this assignment and go back home. _But you don't have a home_, said a little voice in her mind, and she suddenly realized that was true. Swallowing hard, she thought that at least she would be able to leave LA. She closed her eyes and Chuck's smiling face filled her traitorous mind. Right now, she wasn't sure that even that was going to be so easy. 

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **so? What did you think? Was this chapter too long? Should I split the next one in two? As always, reviews are greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

This chapter has been finished since Thursday, but I didn't want to post before the finale, and I couldn't bring myself to post it after. I was... broken, I believe it's the word. People who read my tweets can confirm that, given that I spent most of Friday night getting drunk, hating Fedak and tweeting about it. Now I'm fine, I guess, but I still think this is not the ending the show deserved. Chuck and Sarah went through a lot of things in these past five years and I think the ending was just cruel. But now it's done and we can only hope for a movie in a couple of years. Thank God for fanfiction, right? Anyway, I loved both episodes, Zac and Yvonne were amazing, but that ending was... disappointing to me. I'm just going to assume that everything's alright now, and they are together and happy again, because they are Chuck and Sarah, and they belong together. Ha, I guess I am a romantic, after all! Now, to the story.**  
><strong>

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** So here's the second chapter of this story.

I have to say, when I first posted this, I never thought I would be getting the incredible feedback I got, and I'm very grateful for every review, alert and favorite.

Again, I have to thank the people who helped me with this story. Thanks to the evil twin from **charahtwins** (Maca) for always giving me ideas and helping me think at the wee hours of the morning. Thanks to **Aerox**, who helped me with the computer stuff again (although I decided to go with the crazy solution rather than the real one); and to **ShinyJayne20** and **ChucksterinDowntonAbbey**, who helped me via Twitter with some idiomatic expressions.

No Beta, so you'll have to blame **me** for butchering the language. And, of course, I don't own Chuck.

I hope you enjoy.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Two<strong>

"I don't need _preparation_," said Bryce, and Sarah rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time. They were trying to go over the plan for that night, when Bryce was supposed to _take one for the team_, although everybody on the team was well aware that he was mostly doing it for himself.

"Don't get cocky, Larkin, you don't even know what this people are capable of." Casey was pacing around the living room, while Bryce was comfortably lying on the couch. His smug grin was testing the Colonel's patience, which wasn't all that much to start with. His trigger finger was already itchy, and he just needed a good excuse to calm that itch.

Sensing Casey's irritation, Sarah decided to intervene. "He's right. We know they have at least tapped into the government's intranet, and Graham sent us here because the Agency suspected there was some kind of terrorist activity going on. That can't be a coincidence. We have to be careful if we want tonight's _mission_ to go smoothly."

"Oh, believe me, Agent Walker, it is going to go smoothly," said Bryce, winking at her. Sarah thought she was soon to start pulling her hair out.

Before she could say anything, though, Casey took a menacing step towards Bryce. "Look, you dumbass, if you can't be professional, then you're not going to do this at all! This is serious business and we are not going to risk the success of the assignment just so you can screw a suspected traitor." When he stopped talking, his face was just a few inches away from Bryce's.

"Ok, ok, I get it! Gee… I thought you guys had a sense of humor!" he said, straightening up and fixing his tie. When he saw the incredulous look Sarah was sporting, he added, "Look, guys, I'm a pro. You know my record, I know you both have read it. I never fail a mission. Never happened, never will. And I know you think this is just a game to me, but it's not. I'm just as serious as you are about this, and I swear, you have nothing to worry about." Just when Casey was starting to relax, he pulled a small package out of his pocket and showed it to them, "After all, I always have protection."

The Colonel just let out the loudest grunt Sarah had ever heard and left the house, slamming the door as he got out. Three seconds later, Sarah heard the noise of the guestroom door being slammed as well. She ran a hand through her face. Apparently, she was now living with two kids. She turned around to face Bryce, who still had a smirk on his face. "I hope you're happy now, Larkin," she said dryly.

He waved his hand dismissively. "Oh, the guy's no fun, Walker. Besides, we've been over this a hundred times already."

"Ok, so you won't have any trouble to tell me how you're going to do it one more time."

"Not at all," he said, grinning.

Sarah quirked an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm waiting."

Bryce chuckled, but obliged. "Tonight, I'll show up at Sylvia's place. We know her husband's not in town because Casey has been spying on them. Which is totally creepy. I mean, can you imagine him hanging of the roof, wearing that parabolic microphone?" Sarah gave him a disapproving look, and he seemed to notice it, because he stopped joking and continued. "She's going to invite me to the bedroom and I'm going to fulfill my patriotic duty by giving her exactly what she wants. You and Casey are going to be listening in case anything goes wrong, but I can assure you, nothing will." He winked again and Sarah inhaled deeply trying her best not to punch him. She couldn't risk Sylvia not wanting him because she ruined his pretty boy's face. "After she falls asleep, I'll sneak into her husband's office and I'll download any useful information on this." He showed her a flash drive and she nodded. At least the asshole had a good memory. "Then, I'll go back to bed, and hopefully, she'll be ready for round two."

Sarah couldn't stand it anymore. She just mumbled, "Ok, we're all set," and went back upstairs. Once in her room and having locked the door behind her, she sighed heavily. This was, by far, _the_ worst mission she had ever been assigned to. She just prayed everything went according to the plan that night. She had a bad feeling about it. Besides, she had to admit, she had a lot in her mind.

For the first time since she remembered, she had started questioning her life, her choices, her motives. The truth was, she had been thinking about it a lot lately, especially since she had turned thirty three months ago. She couldn't stop wondering if _that_ was the life that she wanted. Never knowing if the current mission was going to be the last one, always risking her life for something she wasn't sure she entirely understood. She had no family –unless she counted her criminal father and her estranged mother- or friends outside the Agency, and even those _in_ the Agency were rather few. She didn't even have a home. Her underused apartment in DC was just a place she could stay in between missions, nothing else.

And now, being stuck in a place she hated, with a partner she couldn't stand, was bringing it all out again. And she would have never admitted it out loud, but she knew there was one more reason; one that had been added recently, and already was gaining more and more importance every time she thought about it.

_Chuck_. There was… something about him. She didn't know what it was, but in the two short encounters they had had, she had felt it. She had felt he was different. She had felt he was special. Which was absolutely ridiculous, because she didn't even know him. In spite of rationally acknowledging that fact, she felt completely helpless when she was with him, because there was no weapon in the world she could use to fight the effect he had on her. She had found that, when she was with him, she was only a woman, and she hadn't been just a woman in a long, long time. She didn't know how to handle it, and that was the main reason why she had literally ran away from him the last time she'd seen him.

The truth was, she was a mess. Here she was, sitting on her bedroom floor, leaning against the door, turned into an emotional wreck, and she couldn't be more ashamed. She blamed Graham, she blamed Bryce, she blamed Chuck and she blamed herself, for being so weak. If she was going to do her job, she would have to pull it together. Standing up, she pushed all her emotions to a dark corner of her mind. They were going to have to stay there, along with Sarah Walker, the woman. Taking a deep breath, she let Sarah Walker, the spy, regain control.

* * *

><p>Chuck was in the courtyard of the apartment complex, sitting on the edge of the fountain waiting for Morgan, when he heard him calling. "Are you ready, Chuck?"<p>

"Yeah, buddy, let's go."

Once in the car, Morgan casually commented, "So, I called Alex."

Chuck took his eyes off the road and turned to look at his friend, "Who's Alex?"

"The girl who gave me her card the other day, remember? Short, brunette, beautiful blue eyes?"

"Oh, yeah, I remember!" Chuck nodded.

Morgan smiled. "Well, we're going out tonight. I'm going to take her to a restaurant and then we're going bowling."

"Bowling! That's… an interesting choice," Chuck said, while he parked the car in his usual spot.

Morgan shrugged. "Yeah, well, I want to surprise her. Besides, everybody loves bowling!"

Chuck laughed. "Well, I can't say I know anybody who hates it, so…"

Morgan chuckled and pointed at the sign that read 'The Hunter Electronics.' "Wow, I guess your dad wasn't kidding about getting a new sign for the store."

"I guess he wasn't. It looks good up there."

The two of them made their way into the store, which was already full. Chuck headed to his dad's office to greet him. He had done that since he had started working there, after graduating from Stanford. "Hi dad," he said, leaning against the door frame.

Stephen took his eyes off the computer screen. "Hey, son!" he cheerfully greeted, inviting him in. "Did you see the new sign?"

Chuck stepped into the room, smiling at his excitement. "Yeah, dad, it looks great. And I believe it's also visible from the moon."

Stephen chuckled. "Well, you mother picked it," he said. "She's coming for lunch, you should join us."

"Sure, let me know when she's here. Oh, did you get the email I sent you the other day with the inventory?"

"Yes, I got it. I have to say, things are looking very good for us this year."

"I'm glad to hear that, dad," Chuck said.

Stephen cleared his throat and told him, "So, I was thinking… maybe you can take some time off and finish that program you were working on."

Chuck smiled. "Dad, I can't take time off. I told you, I want to be treated as any other employee."

"I know, I know… but I really think you're too good to be working at an electronics store, Charles. You _are_ an engineer, after all," Stephen stated with proud.

Chuck grinned. "So are you, and you seem very happy about owning one."

Stephen chuckled. "Ok, ok, suit yourself. But promise me you'll keep working on that."

"I will, dad." Chuck turned to look at the front desk and saw a lot of people were already gathering around it. "I have to go now, there are a lot of clients and Jeff and Lester are nowhere to be seen."

"Ok, I'll see you at lunch, son." Chuck nodded and approached the small crowd. Apparently, there was a new computer virus going around and people were getting desperate. He had a long day ahead of him.

* * *

><p>"I can't believe this," Bryce mumbled, as he stared at the screen of his laptop. It had been giving him trouble for the past thirty minutes. It was working painfully slow and he was starting to lose his patience. He considered himself to be pretty good with computers, but it seemed that the damn thing just didn't want to work properly. He was bored and had plenty of time to kill until the night, so he decided he would call someone to fix it. He grabbed the phone book and noticed there was a page with its corner folded. Not believing his luck when he saw the ad of the electronics store, he dialed the number and explained the woman who took his call what had happened. Once she assured him someone would be going to his house to fix his laptop soon, he hung up and relaxed into the couch. Five minutes later, he was sound asleep.<p>

* * *

><p>Chuck was having a crazy day. The virus turned out to be a nasty Trojan very difficult to remove and people were freaking out. He had had to cancel lunch with his parents, and even his dad was now helping at the Nerd Herd desk.<p>

"Hey, Lester, it's your turn to take it," said Mandy. She was a petite brunette in her mid-forties. Her job consisted on taking the calls and assigning a person to take care of the computer emergency. After ten years of working at the store, she was the only one who could actually make Jeff and Lester do their jobs. So when Lester heard her, he got out from his hiding place under the counter and asked her where she needed him to go. The address caught Chuck's attention. It sounded familiar to him, for some reason, and Lester was almost at the door when he realized why. Running towards him, he called out to him, "Hey, Lester!" Lester turned around to face him. "Hey, buddy, I got this one," he told him, out of breath.

"That's interesting, Charles. Why would you want to go all the way across town just to get a computer emergency?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"I don't… I, uh… Mandy just remembered the caller said they have a PC, and I know you're a Mac guy, so… I'm really just trying to save you some pain here," Chuck lied, knowing that that would make him back off.

"Ha! That woman! She thinks I'm an amateur. I'm and IT artist, Charles, and I am not going to waste this," he pointed to his head, "on a PC. She should be ashamed, Charles, she should be ashamed!" and with that, he handed him the briefcase he had been holding and walked away. Chuck just watched him as he left, slightly amused. Shaking his head, he made his way over the car and got in.

He knew he wasn't supposed to get too excited, but he couldn't help it. He had thought he wasn't going to see her ever again, and now, _she had called. Maybe she needs to transfer her old files to the new laptop_, he thought, being rational. She had admitted she didn't know how to do that, so that had to be it.

_What am I doing here?_ He remembered the conversation he had had with Ellie only a few days ago. He had told her he wasn't the kind of guy who would go after a married woman, but here he was, lying to a coworker and taking over a call that wasn't even his. And now it was too late to come back and make up some excuse to get someone else to go. Not even Lester would believe him. He tightened his grip on the steering wheel while resisting the urge to bang his head against it. That couldn't be safe. What was safe –and the right thing to do, said the little voice of his conscience, which sounded a lot like Ellie- was to get to Eva's –_Mrs. Anderson's!_ - house and be completely professional. And to make sure that this would be the last time he ever saw her. It was better that way. He parked in front of the house and headed to the door. His hands were sweating and he suddenly felt self-conscious. He shook his head, trying to get rid of that feeling, exhaled deeply and knocked on the door.

Sarah walked into the living room to find Bryce asleep on the couch. _At least he won't be bothering me for a while_, she thought. She was making her way to the kitchen when she heard a knock on the door. Oh, crap. In this assignment, a knock on the door meant that a neighbor was coming over with the intention to chat. And that meant a lot of fake smiling, feigning interest, and usually, a headache.

"Bryce! Bryce, wake up!" she called. He was supposed to be at work, so he would have to hide until the unexpected visit left. That was, if she ever succeeded on waking him up. "Larkin!" she almost shouted in his ear. That seemed to do the trick.

He sat upright and blinked. "What? What is it?" he asked groggily.

"There's someone at the door! You need to hide, now!"

"Why? It's probably just the computer guy…" he said, rubbing his eyes.

Sarah felt… panic, but forced herself to remain calm. It couldn't possibly be _him_. There were plenty of stores Bryce could've called, and even if he'd called to that one, she was sure Chuck wasn't the only one who worked there. So she was going to be fine. It wasn't like Chuck was the one behind that door, anyway. However, she needed to be sure.

"Ok, you get it, then," she cowardly said.

Bryce frowned, still barely awake. "Why?"

"Because my computer works fine and I didn't call anyone!" she hissed.

"What if one of the neighbors see me?"

She didn't know why they were arguing about this. "Then we'll just tell them you're sick!" She heard another knock and her heart started to beat a little faster. "Go!"

"Ok, ok, I'm going," he said, slowly getting up and heading to the door.

Nobody was answering and Chuck felt a little relieved. And a little disappointed too, but he wasn't going to admit it. He was about to leave when the door flew open. He swallowed hard and slowly turned around, but the eyes that were focusing on him wasn't the ones he was expecting to see. He was frozen in place, and couldn't bring himself to say a word. He had been assuming Eva was the one who had called, but it never crossed his mind that it was possible that his husband had done it instead. He wanted to kick himself for being so stupid.

"You're the computer guy, aren't you?" the man said.

"Uh… yeah, yeah. I'm, uh… Chuck," he stammered.

The man smiled. "Ok, Chuck, come on in," he said, inviting him in.

Sarah's eyes widened when he heard what Bryce had said. She was eavesdropping from the kitchen. To be honest, this couldn't be considered as one of her best moments and she wasn't very proud of herself right now. Pushing those thoughts aside, she focused on the voices coming from the living room.

"Let me just get my laptop," she heard Bryce say. She tried to look casual when he entered the kitchen, but her heart was pounding and the magazine she was supposed to be reading was upside down.

"What are you doing? Reading some runes? Are you trying to turn someone's ears into kumquats?" he asked when he noticed.

She looked at him as he was crazy. He just chuckled as he grabbed the computer and went back to the living room. Sarah sighed heavily and buried her head in her hands. She had officially reached a new low. She was a trained spy, for God's sake! A trained CIA Agent who was currently hiding from some guy she had met a few days ago. So what if her palms were suddenly sweaty and her heart felt like it was going to come out of her chest? Chuck was only doing his job and she was going to do hers. She told herself that she had a cover to sell, and that her sudden impulse of joining her fake-husband in the living room had nothing to do with her wanting to see Chuck again. Before she knew what she was doing, she was already stepping into the living room. Chuck was the first one to notice. Bryce was saying something, but she knew Chuck's full attention was focused on her as she made her way next to the couch.

"Hi," she said, her voice sounding unusually shy.

Chuck realized he had been staring at her, so he diverted his eyes to the laptop that was currently on his lap as he awkwardly mumbled a 'hello.'

Bryce turned around to face Sarah. "Hey, honey, need anything?"

_Great, now what?_ "No, I just… I was looking for those…" she said, as she pointed to the DVD cases lying on the coffee table. As soon as Sarah noticed what _those_ were, she felt the need to crawl into a hole and die. However, her expression remained somewhat neutral as she tried her best not to look at Chuck.

Bryce grabbed them and frowning, he told her, "I didn't know you were into TV shows."

Chuck's gaze fell to his lap as he bit his lower lip. This had been, by far, the worst idea he had ever had. He didn't know what he was thinking, coming over to her house, giving her free DVDs… it was not like he'd been expecting her to dump her husband for him. So why was he sitting on her couch now, wishing he was invisible?

"Oh, well, I recently discovered it myself," she answered sweetly, grinning a little. _What is he doing?_

Bryce grinned as well. "That's good, we can watch it tonight if you want." Just as he finished speaking, his cell phone rang and "Pump it" filled the room. Sarah did her best to disguise her irritation. She hated that song with a passion. She also suspected that was the reason Bryce had set it as a ringtone.

Bryce checked the caller ID and, seeing it was Graham, he excused himself and walked out to the backyard, leaving Chuck and Sarah alone.

Sarah didn't know what to do. After a few moments of hesitation, she decided to take a seat in the chair next to the couch. Chuck kept working on the laptop, ignoring both Sarah and the awkward silence that had settled between them.

"So…" Sarah's eyes widened when she discovered she was actually talking.

Chuck immediately gazed at her. "Is it bad?" she lamely asked, pointing at the computer.

"Uh… yeah, kind of. It's a new virus that's going around. The store's been a little crazy today. A lot of people has come with the same problem."

"Oh." She didn't really know what else to say. "Can you fix it?"

"Uh… yes, yes I can." Even when he had gotten himself into this soap opera-ish kind of mess, computers were one thing he understood. And he knew everything about them, which made him feel comfortable and secure. So he kept speaking, even though Eva hadn't really shown interest in knowing anything else. "It's actually a Trojan. But this one's kind of tricky to remove given how it works. You see, it uninstalls the virus scanner of the computer, and then, when you try to install another one, it stops the installer execution."

Sarah listened to everything he said, although she had no idea what he was talking about. He seemed to know what he was doing, though, and she told him that.

He smiled. "Well, I did go to Stanford."

Sarah's eyebrows shot up. She had thought he appeared to be a smart guy, and that last bit of information confirmed it. "That's impressive," she truthfully stated.

He chuckled. "It's not when your father's an engineer, your mother a successful business woman and your big sister a neurologist."

"Wow… that's… impressive too," she said.

"And also a little pressuring," he commented, as he started to type something.

"I can imagine."

"And… it's done." He smiled victoriously as he showed her the screen of the laptop. "Good as new."

She couldn't help but smile at his excitement. "That's great. I'm sure Kyle's going to be happy to hear that."

Chuck's smile faltered a little when she mentioned her husband, but he kept eye contact. It wasn't like he could stop staring at her beautiful blue eyes, anyway.

"So I'm guessing you're going to start watching Fringe," he said.

"Yeah," she lied. "I'm very intrigued, and someone told me it's awesome," she teased.

He chuckled. "Well, someone knew what they were talking about, then."

"I guess they did."

They fell silent again, and Sarah was starting to get nervous when he asked, "How's the new laptop working?"

She let out a relieved sigh, truly appreciating that he was by far a much better talker than she was. "Great. I really like it. Kyle helped me transfer all my old files."

"That's good, that's great… I'm glad you liked it." He was running out of conversation topics and she wasn't helping him at all. "So, uh, you have a really nice house."

"Thanks. We recently moved in."

"Oh. What, uh, what brought you to LA?"

"Kyle got a job offer and we thought it was the right time for us. So we came here. It's really different from Chicago." She felt guilty for lying to him, especially when he was being so nice to her, but she couldn't tell him the real story, so she went with the cover one.

He gave her a crooked smile that caused her heart to speed up again. "Oh, I can imagine. The weather's much better, right?"

She chuckled. "Oh, yeah. That is one thing I don't miss at all."

Someone cleared their throat and both Chuck and Sarah turned to look at Bryce, who had stepped into the living room and was now staring intently at them, quirking an eyebrow.

Chuck looked down, ashamed. He technically wasn't doing anything wrong, but he felt incredibly guilty for feeling such an intense attraction to a married woman. She was great. She was perfect. And he was going straight to hell.

Sarah noticed his troubled expression and said, "Kyle, honey, he just finished fixing your laptop."

"That's great. Thank you very much, Chuck," Bryce said, taking a step closer to the couch. The embarrassed look in the guy's eyes said it all. _Busted_. He decided he was going to have some fun. "So, I guess you're done here," he added, in a serious tone.

Chuck swallowed hard. "Yes, Sir." He set the computer on the coffee table and stood up. Mr. Anderson escorted him to the door, but he felt like he was trying to make sure he actually left the house. After he paid him, Eva joined them at the door.

"Goodbye, Chuck, and thank you," she said.

He saw Mr. Anderson snaking an arm around his wife's waist as he added, "Yes, thank you, Chuck."

He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he heard a tone of warning behind those words, so he just nodded and said, "Goodbye, Mr. and Mrs. Anderson," before almost running towards his car and taking off.

When Bryce closed the door, Sarah took a step back, forcing him to let her go. "You _had_ to do that, didn't you?" she accused.

Bryce wasn't going to pretend he didn't know what she was talking about. "Well, he was kind of ogling my wife, you know? I don't like that."

"I'm not your wife, Larkin. And he wasn't ogling, he was being perfectly nice. And he fixed your computer."

"Yeah, that's great news, because I just paid him for that. And I'm getting tired of having to remind you that we have to sell our cover." Sarah kept quiet, because she knew he was right. She had never been so distracted on a mission and it pissed her off that, of all people, he was the one who kept pointing it out. "And what's with you getting so girly all of the sudden?"

"What?"

"You were giggling like a schoolgirl, Walker, I saw you."

Sarah let out an offended gasp. "I was not!" Sarah Walker never giggled. _Ever_.

Bryce smirked. "Don't worry, he seemed to be into you too."

Sarah hated herself when she couldn't quite control the pleased expression that appeared on her face. It didn't matter, she knew that, because he still thought she was married and she was never going to see him again anyway. That thought alone was enough to make her frown.

But Bryce was, after all, a spy, and that meant he was also good at reading people's expressions, and that was what he was doing with hers right now. "Oh, my God, Walker! You got it bad for the nerd!" Sarah clenched her teeth but didn't say anything. "Wait a second… that's why the page on the phone book was folded! You had met him before! Wow… I wouldn't have expected this from you, Mrs. Anderson."

"For the last time, Larkin, we're not married. And when and how I met him it's none of your business." She knew she wasn't exactly helping her case here, but he was smirking and she hated that.

"So I guess this is why you don't want to be with me. Would you be attracted to me if I was a loser with no future working at an electronics store?" he maliciously inquired.

Sarah wasn't going to just stand there and let him talk like that about Chuck. "He's not a loser, Larkin. He went to Stanford."

"So what? I went to Penn!" he said dismissively.

Sarah had had enough. Taking a step closer to him, she looked him in the eye as she spoke, "But you're an arrogant bastard. You don't care about anything or anyone but yourself. And _that_ is why nothing's ever going to happen between us." With that, she headed upstairs.

She really didn't want to hear what else he had to say. For now, she was going to lock herself in her room –again- and try to calm down. After all, it was the only place in the house where she could be alone. She was being emotional and she knew it, but she couldn't help it when Larkin kept pushing her buttons. Looking through her bedroom window, she spotted Casey pruning the bushes. She knew he was kind of waiting that everything ended that night, but she was skeptical. Not because the success of the mission depended on Larkin –after all, despite being an asshole, he was a great field agent- but because it all seemed… too easy. Something felt weird, but she couldn't put a finger on what it was. She had learned to trust her instincts through the years, for they were almost never wrong; and now they were telling her something was really wrong about this whole assignment. She tried to shake off that feeling, but it kept bugging her for the rest of the day.

* * *

><p>After spending the rest of the day avoiding Bryce, Sarah went downstairs to get ready for the mission. Casey was already there. For the looks of it, he and Bryce had argued again, because they were standing in opposite sides of the kitchen, not talking to each other. Sarah sighed and decided to take control of the situation.<p>

"Is everything ready?"

Casey nodded. "Yes, it is. We just have to wait until Sylvia gets home. She should be back from yoga in about twenty minutes."

"Ok." Turning to Bryce, she reluctantly asked him, "You're all set?"

For once, he decided to be serious. "Yeah, I have everything I need."

Casey handed her an earpiece. She put it in; although she was sure she wouldn't be wearing it all the time. They just stood there, the three of them in silence, waiting for Sylvia to arrive. Fifteen minutes later, they heard her car. Bryce reached into his pocket to check the flash drive was still there. Casey handed him a bottle of wine and he waited a while before heading to the door. He didn't want to seem too eager.

"Ok, wish me luck!" was all he said, before turning the lights off and walking out the house.

Sarah and Casey nodded and settled in the kitchen table. Sarah turned on a flashlight. It wasn't ideal, but she was supposed to be back in Chicago at her aunt's funeral, so they couldn't risk being seen.

Bryce made his way to the door and knocked. After a few seconds, Sylvia opened it. He immediately noticed she was wearing a very short robe.

"Mr. Anderson," she said with a grin. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"Hello, Sylvia. My wife's out of town and I was feeling lonely. I figured you could keep me company. I hope this is not a bad time," he said with a charming smile.

"Not at all," she replied, letting him in. "My husband's out of town too. I thought I was going to have to… keep myself entertained, but this is such a nice surprise!"

Bryce gulped as he walked towards the couch. He heard Casey's snort in his ear. Sylvia quickly joined him with a corkscrew and two glasses. He opened the bottle and poured them both some wine.

Suddenly, music started to play and he smiled when he saw Sylvia holding the music system's remote. She moved closer to him on the couch and rested a hand on his thigh. "So, Kyle. Are you going to tell me why you're really here?"

He took a sip of wine and looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"Well, your wife is out of town, but you didn't _have_ to come here. I'm guessing you had… something else in mind."

Bryce settled his glass on the floor and turned to look at her in the eyes. "The truth is, ever since you talked to me at the barbecue, I can't stop thinking about you."

She seductively bit her lower lip and leaned closer to whisper in his ear. "That's good. Because I can't stop thinking about you either," she then nibbled his earlobe, and settling her glass near his on the floor, she pushed him so he was now lying on his back, and slowly undid her robe, revealing a white see-through negligee.

"Well, the kid's good at seduction, you have to give him that," said Casey.

"Please, he barely had to do anything. That woman was ready to jump him since he knocked on that door," Sarah said taking her earpiece off with a disgusted expression. "How long do you think this is going to take?"

Casey listened intently, and after a few seconds he answered, "Well, it seems like they have a couple more minutes before…"

"I was talking about the mission, Casey," Sarah interrupted him, narrowing her eyes.

Casey cleared his throat to disguise a chuckle. "Oh, I don't know. A couple of hours maybe?"

Sarah sighed. "I hope everything goes right tonight."

"Relax, Walker, it's going to be fine. The kid clearly knows what he's doing."

Sarah just glared at him.

* * *

><p>An hour later, Bryce was lying on the bed as Sylvia slept right next to him. He slowly got out of bed and went downstairs. He took the flash drive and a tranq dart out of the inside pocket of his jacket and pinched Sylvia on the back of her neck, so she wouldn't see the mark the next day. He headed to the office and turned on the computer. He realized it had a password and he cursed under his breath for not considering that possibility. He looked around to see if he found any clue to what it could be, with no luck. "Casey, Walker!" he said into his watch.<p>

Casey was the first one to answer. "What is it, Larkin?"

"It's the computer. It has a password!"

"Crap! How is it that we didn't think about that?"

"I don't know, but I can't get the intel we need unless I have the password."

Sarah joined the conversation, "Are you sure there isn't any other way?"

"There isn't, unless you want me to carry the computer to the house and then call an analyst to log in," he answered sarcastically.

"Ok, ok. Where's Sylvia?"

"In the bedroom. I tranqed her so she wouldn't catch me sneaking into his husband's office."

"Well, go back to bed for now. I'm calling Graham to let him know about the situation. As soon as I get his orders, I'll tell you what to do."

"Copy that." He turned the computer off and went back to bed, just as Sarah had told him.

Across the street, Sarah was talking to Graham. "Director, we have a situation. Agent Larkin is currently at the suspect's house, but he can't get the intel we need because the computer has a password, and we don't know it."

"And you didn't think about this before?" Graham's tone was harsh on the other end of the line.

"No, Sir." She heard his sigh and cringed. _This is what happens when you get distracted on a mission_, she scolded herself.

"Ok. I know someone who lives in LA, someone who works for the Agency and can get you into that computer. I'll contact him and set up a meeting. Agent Larkin will have to repeat tonight's performance tomorrow night. I'll call you tomorrow with the details."

"Thank you, Sir." Graham didn't say anything else and the line went dead.

She headed back to the kitchen table and spoke into the microphone. "Larkin, do you hear me?"

"Yes, I'm here."

"I just talked to Graham. He says he knows someone who can help us get into the computer, and he's going to set up a meeting for tomorrow. He also said you're going to have to repeat tonight's performance, so make sure she wants to see you again."

"Ok, I will. I guess I'm sleeping here tonight. I'll see you tomorrow," he said.

"Ok. We'll be staying up in case anything happens."

"I'm guessing Graham wasn't happy," Casey commented.

"Not at all. I hope this guy can help us. I have a bad feeling about all of this."

"Relax, Walker. You're just tired. Why don't you go to sleep? I'm staying up anyway," he offered.

Sleeping sounded great, but they were on this together and she wasn't going to let him stay awake while she rested. "No, it's ok, Casey, thanks."

"Ok, suit yourself," he said, shrugging.

Sarah grabbed the flashlight and went to make coffee. If they were going to stay up all night, they were going to need it.

* * *

><p>It was seven thirty in the morning when her phone rang. She quickly picked it up when she saw it was Graham.<p>

"Walker."

"Agent Walker, I just talked to our man in LA. He says he can meet with Larkin at 10 am. He's going to give him a device to access the computer."

Sarah asked where they were supposed to meet, and Graham gave her the address of a park. "Look, Walker, I trust this man completely, but he's a little paranoid, so I think it's best if you do what he says."

"Understood, Sir. How is Agent Larkin supposed to recognize him?"

"He says he'll find him. His codename's Orion. That's all you need to know."

"Thank you, Sir. Agent Larkin will be there."

"He better be. Oh, and Walker? Make sure you don't screw this up again."

Sarah's eyes widened and she squeezed her phone in her hand before smashing it into the table.

Casey glanced at her, with a slightly amused expression. "What did he said?"

"He asked me to not screw this up again," she replied, barely containing her urge to punch something.

Casey grunted. "You know he's right, though. We did screw up. We should have thought of that before Larkin went in."

She sighed, her anger diminishing a little. "I know, I know. But still, I don't like to be lectured by my superiors."

"I know what you mean. I wonder if Larkin's planning to ever come home again."

Just as he said that, the door flew open and Bryce stepped into the house, looking disheveled. "Morning," he said cheerfully.

"About time, Larkin. Graham just called," was Casey's reply.

Bryce shook his head and took a sit at the table. "I'm sorry, I was just waiting for her to wake up. I wanted to make sure she knew I was leaving. By the way, she asked me to go back tonight, so I'm going to get that intel."

Sarah told him everything Graham had said about the meeting with Orion, and Bryce agreed to go alone.

A couple of hours later, he was in the park, sitting on a bench, trying to spot his contact. Suddenly, a tall man took a seat next to him. He was also wearing sunglasses and a long coat, which was a little excessive given the warm weather.

Bryce didn't look at him directly, always acting as he was just enjoying the view.

"Agent Larkin." It wasn't a question, he noticed.

"Yes."

"I'm Orion. Director Graham sent me to give you this." He discretely handed him what looked like a flash drive.

"A flash drive?" he asked, skeptical.

"This is not just _any_ flash drive, Agent Larkin. Once you plug it in, you need to set the computer to boot from the flash drive. That will allow you to log in without the password."

"Are they going to be able to tell about the intrusion?"

"No. Originally, this would reset the password, but I programmed it so it will grant you access without doing it. We don't want them to get suspicious, do we?"

Bryce nodded. "That's all?"

The man stood up. "That's all, Agent Larkin," he said, as he started to walk away.

Bryce watched as Orion made his way across the park. A group of kids were passing by in front of him, and his view was momentarily blocked by them. Once they were gone, so was Orion.

* * *

><p>For the second time in two days, the night found Casey and Sarah sitting at the kitchen table. Casey was checking the microphones and Sarah was making coffee. Bryce was standing next to Casey, his hands deep in his pockets, and unusually quiet.<p>

"Is everything alright, Larkin?" Casey asked, noticing his strange behavior.

"Yeah, everything's… fine," he said, not sounding convincing at all.

Sarah frowned. She had never seen him like this, without that confident attitude that seemed to be his default mode. "Are you sure? Because if you don't think you can do this…"

"It's not that. I can do this. I just… have this funny feeling, that's all." He looked somehow affected and Sarah was starting to worry about him when he added, "Maybe this is what you feel when you sleep with the same woman two nights in a row." _And the jerk is back_. She rolled her eyes as she handed him his earpiece and asked him to show her the flash drive.

"It's ok, mom, I'm all set."

"Not yet, lover boy," said Casey, as he handed him a bottle of wine. "_Now_ you're all set."

Just as the night before, Bryce left the house, and headed over his neighbor's. Taking a deep breath, he plastered his best smile on his face and knocked.

This time, when Sylvia opened the door, she was fully dressed and seemed a little less eager. She grabbed the bottle from his hands and invited him in. Not many words were said before they were making their way upstairs, struggling to get rid of each other's clothes. As they reached the bedroom, Bryce was only wearing his boxers. Sylvia kissed him one more time before pushing him onto the bed. He landed on his back, and waited for her to join him. She slowly crawled onto the bed, trailing kisses on his upper body, making her way to his lips. She ran her hands through his chest and up his arms. Before he could think of anything, he felt the cold metal of the handcuff closing around his wrist.

"What… what are we doing here?" he asked.

"I just thought we could try something new," she replied, grinning down at him.

The spy side of his brain did not like the sound of that. "Ok… uh, what exactly are we trying tonight?"

She stood up and, with a seductive smile, she said, "You'll see," before walking out of the bedroom.

Bryce immediately went to tell his partners something was wrong when he realized she had taken his watch. Cursing under his breath and trying not to panic, he looked for the key, but it was nowhere to be seen. Clenching his teeth, he broke his thumb and, ignoring the pain, headed to the window. When he was about to climb out, he heard the distinctive sound of a gun being cocked behind him. Lifting his hands in the air, he closed his eyes for a moment as he swallowed hard in defeat. Slowly, he turned around to see Sylvia and her husband standing in front of him. She was still smiling when she asked, "Going somewhere… _Kyle_?"

* * *

><p>"Huh," Casey grunted.<p>

Sarah looked inquisitively at him. "What is it?"

"I'm not hearing anything," he said, as he checked the audio equipment to see if everything was still on its right place.

"That's weird. It all worked fine until a few seconds ago. You think something happened?"

He shook his head. "Yeah, and everything seems to be fine. It's probably nothing…" the sound of a car engine coming from the street caught his attention and he walked over to the window to see who was going out that late at night. He saw two figures aiming a gun at a third one, forcing it to get on the back seat. An alarm went off on his head as he turned around and said, "Walker, we have a problem!"

Sarah quickly understood what was going on, and immediately went into spy mode. She grabbed her gun and the keys and ran to the door. Casey wasted no time in getting into the car as she put the key in the ignition switch and sped up, trying not to lose the black Mercedes.

"How did this happen? How did they know?" she asked no one in particular.

Casey was wondering the same thing. "I have no idea, Walker."

Sarah focused on following the car. After about a fifteen minute ride, she saw it slowing down and parking in front of a building clearly abandoned.

Once Sylvia and her partner dragged Bryce inside, she parked about a block away and quickly got out of the car.

"Walker!" she heard Casey calling. "Walker, wait!"

She turned around to face him, "What, Casey? We have to go in there, now!"

"No, Walker! We don't know how many of them are waiting in there, and we don't know what they're going to do to him. We need backup, we can't go in there alone."

"Casey, we don't have time. They are going to torture him, or worse. We can't let him confess everything!"

"It's too late for that. I guess they already figured out we're working together, so it's just a matter of time for them to come after us. Call Graham, tell him about what happened and ask him to send backup immediately."

Sarah knew he was right, but it still felt wrong to let Bryce stand torture when they were just a few feet away, just sitting there waiting for backup. In spite of that, she did as Casey told her.

"They should be here soon," she informed him. Casey just nodded. She could see he was just as concerned as she was, but he was doing a much better job hiding it. As they waited in the poorly lighted street, she wondered what they were going to do to Bryce . She just hope he would be alright.

* * *

><p>Bryce evaluated his situation. His hands and legs were firmly tied up to a chair, and there were six other people in the room, including Sylvia and her partner. There was some kind of equipment installed, and he guessed it belonged to them, because it looked new, like it had been recently added. <em>Probably some kind of bio-weapon research<em>, he thought. He had no way out, his partners didn't know about him being kidnapped and there was a high probability that he wouldn't make it. _I guess I'm screwed anyway_.

"So… are you going to tell me what is this all about?"

Sylvia walked towards him and smiled. "You'll find out soon enough,_ Mr. Anderson_."

"You can do anything you want, you can torture me, but I won't tell you anything," he stated.

Sylvia shook her head. "We are not going to torture you, Kyle. I wouldn't want to ruin your pretty face," she said as she ran a hand through his cheek.

Bryce was breathing hard now, trying to keep the fear from showing in his face. "What are you going to do to me, then?"

She opened her mouth to reply, but at that exact time, a man said, "It's ready."

When he came out from the shadows, he recognized Brad White, another one of his _neighbors. Graham wasn't wrong after all_.

"You think this will work?" he heard a female voice ask, and he was shocked to recognize it as Lanie's the woman who lived next to the Arculins.

"We don't know yet, we never actually tried this in humans," said Bob, her _husband_, as he started to type in the computer.

Bryce was now panicking. It sounded like they were going to use him for an experiment. He desperately tried to struggle, but it was useless.

He just watched as his neighbors placed three screens around him, one in front of him and one on each of his sides.

"What are you doing?" he screamed, knowing he wasn't going to get an answer.

Bob approached him and put something on his eyes. Fear took over as he started to writhe in the chair. He couldn't even blink, and he was sure whatever was coming was even worse.

Giving him one last look, Bob told him, "If I were you, Mr. Anderson, I would start to pray for this trial's success."

With that, all the lights went off and all Bryce could hear was his own heavy breathing. Suddenly the screens lightened and a great number of images appeared on them, changing at a frightening speed. His head started to hurt and he felt the metallic taste of blood in his mouth. It was coming down his nose, but he couldn't stop watching as the pictures kept switching in front of him. He didn't know how long it lasted, but he started feeling dizzy and his eyes rolled to the back of his head. He didn't have a last thought as his whole body relaxed and he lost consciousness.

"This is ridiculous, why are they taking so long, Casey?" It had only been ten minutes, but, in her experience, that little time could be the difference between life and death, and she had a bad feeling about Bryce's current situation.

"I don't know, Walker," Casey grunted.

After a few seconds, they heard a loud noise and barely got the time to hide when a side door of the building opened and two people got out. They were carrying what it looked like a heavy bag between them, and only walked a few feet before dropping it to the floor and going back inside.

Sarah quickly stood up and, ignoring Casey's protests, went to see what it was. Casey rolled his eyes and followed her closely. He didn't need another partner to get kidnapped. He helped her open the bag, and they both just stared in shocked silence at its content.

Sarah was the first one to recover, "Casey, we need to help him!"

"Walker, I really don't think there's a way…"

"He's still breathing, Casey, help me take him to the car, now!"

He didn't really think that it was possible that Larkin was still alive, but he helped her anyway. Even if he was dead, we didn't deserve to be left to rot on the street.

Between the two of them, they managed to put him on the backseat of the car. He instructed Sarah to get into the passenger's seat as he sped off. This mission was getting worse with every passing second, and he didn't want to risk being captured before their superiors knew what had happened.

Sarah called Graham to inform him about the last events.

"What did he say?" Casey asked her when she hung up.

"He said we need to take Bryce to a safe house. He gave me the address and told me to wait for him."

"He's coming here?" Casey was just as surprised as she was.

"Yeah," she said absentmindedly. Nobody spoke for a while after that.

* * *

><p>Six hours later, Sarah was pacing around the kitchenliving room and Casey was peeking through the window when a black car parked in front of the house. A large African-American man got out and headed to the door.

"Walker, he's here."

Sarah almost ran to get it. "Sir," she greeted respectfully as he stepped into the house and closed the door behind him.

"Agent Walker, how's Agent Larkin?"

"He's out cold, Sir. He hasn't woken up yet."

Graham's expression was somber when he spoke. "Please, Agent Walker, Colonel Casey, take a seat. What I'm going to tell you is extremely sensitive."

Sarah and Casey exchanged worried looks as they sat down.

"After you called, I sent the team to the building and gave them instructions to arrest everyone. When they got in, it was empty. They did find some computers and our analysts are already working on them, but I'm sure nothing they'll find it's going to be useful."

"How can you possibly…?"

Graham interrupted Casey. "Because it's not the first time this happens. There is some kind of organization, inside the government, trying to create a perfect army. They are basically terrorists trying to take down the government from the inside. We don't know how many they are, but we do know they are dangerous, and this is the proof. However, this is the first time they manage to capture one of our people."

"Sir… what do you mean a 'perfect army'?" asked Sarah hesitantly. She wasn't sure she wanted to know.

Graham clenched his teeth, clearly reluctant to talk about it. "In the eighties, the US government ordered some of our top scientists to lead a research about what they ultimately called 'the Intersect.' The trials weren't successful so the project was shut down. About a year ago, important files about that research were stolen from us. We believe this organization is trying to continue it, and they used Agent Larkin as a test subject."

Sarah and Casey exchanged another look. Clearly, things were worse than they had imagined. Casey was the first to break the silence. "So… what is going to happen with him?"

"Unfortunately, we don't know. We found some schematics that lead us to think they have modified the Intersect, but we don't know how it works or what it does. We're going to have to move him so our doctors can…" a loud noise coming from the other room made him trail off, as a very awake Bryce Larkin made his way towards them.

Graham, Casey and Sarah stared at him wide-eyed. "He seems ok to me," the Colonel mumbled.

Sarah would've agreed, but then Bryce spoke. "Who are you?"

* * *

><p>Sarah and Casey were trying to get Bryce to sit down and stop touching things and wandering around. He basically had no recollection of <em>anything<em>. Anything important, that is. He kept singing songs Sarah had never heard, and, ever since he had gotten up from bed, he had hit on Sarah, stolen Casey's gun –which the Colonel retrieved with an exaggerated maneuver, considering Bryce didn't remember his training-, and hit on Sarah a little more. At least, she had managed to splint his thumb.

Graham had locked himself in the bedroom, tired of the constant interruptions and was talking on his cellphone. After a good fifteen minutes, he got out and ordered them to get their stuff and get into the car.

Sarah frowned. She had never seen Graham so… worried before. In fact, she had never seen him in action. Since she had been recruited –by Graham himself- all the times she had seen him there had been a desk between them. "Excuse me, Sir… where are we going?"

He gave her a serious look. "To try and fix this."

* * *

><p>They had been driving for about twenty minutes when the car started to slow down. Sarah was on the backseat, babysitting Bryce, who kept trying to unfasten his seatbelt. She looked briefly through the window to see where they were and her breath caught in her throat. It couldn't be.<p>

Casey parked the car in one of the many empty spots of the parking lot and they all got out. It was already morning, but the store was clearly closed. She suspected it would only open its doors in a few hours, so the fear she was feeling was completely unjustified. There was no way any employee was already there.

As they approached the entrance, the doors opened, but they closed again after they got in. Given that the store was empty, there was no way of missing the tall man leaning against the Nerd Herd desk. She recognized him as the man who had been speaking with Chuck's sister. He had brown hair, but it was going grey on the sides of his head, and his arms were crossed above his chest.

"It's good to see you again, Orion," said Graham.

"I wish I could say the same, Langston. Follow me, please." So _this_ was the mysterious Orion. He must've been someone really important to call the CIA Director by his first name.

He led them to a small room in a corner of the store. Sarah looked around and noticed a big TV screen and a home theatre system along with a couch, a couple of chairs and a coffee table. Orion invited them to sit down, as he closed the curtains. Graham gave him an amused look, but he only said, "You can never be too careful."

"Are you feeling ok, Agent Larkin?" Orion asked Bryce, who was looking curiously at him.

"You people keep calling me 'agent.' Am I some kind of James Bond or something?" he asked with a excited smiled.

Orion didn't smile back. Instead, he asked them to tell him what had happened, and went over every little detail, especially about Bryce's behavior after he had gotten up.

Once they had finish, Graham spoke up. "So? Do you have any theories?"

Orion nodded. "I do, but you're not going to like this."

"Try me."

"Back when I was in charge of the research, someone suggested that the Intersect might work better if, before we uploaded the information on the subject, we erased their brain."

Sarah's eyes widened in horror. "As in a lobotomy?" she asked, not being able to stop herself.

"No, Agent Walker. You see, the final objective of this research was to create the perfect soldier. A man who wouldn't question an order given to him, a man that would have no fear or emotions that stopped him from doing his job. So, to accomplish that, it was only logical that every moral restraint had to be erased."

Even Casey seemed to be somewhat disturbed at the idea. "So you were basically creating killing machines."

"Yes, we were," was Orion's simple response. His face showed not only disgust, but great remorse.

Graham cleared his throat. He didn't seem so affected by this revelations. "So this is what happened to Agent Larkin?"

"I believe this people recovered the schematics for that new machine and tried to do exactly what I told you. But they obviously failed, since Agent Larkin doesn't remember anything, much less any kind of information they could have uploaded in him."

"So they just erased his memory?"

"I think so, yes. But I would like to run some tests to confirm that, if that's ok with you."

Graham pursed his lips and reluctantly said, "You're the only one left, Orion."

Orion nodded. "Then we should… you know… reopen that place," he said, nodding towards the wall.

Graham smiled for the first time since he had arrived and told him, "You always loved _that_ place."

Orion shrugged and returned the smile. "Well, a crazy scientist has to have his lab, right?"

Sarah and Casey just watched their light exchange. Graham turned around to say something, but, at that exact moment, the door flew open.

Chuck walked into the building with a cup of coffee in his hand. He had decided he would head to the store early to work a little on that program he was writing before opening to the public. Even when he was only half awake, something immediately caught his attention. The home theatre room had its curtains closed. _I hope those aren't Jeff and Lester, or this time, I_ will _fire them_, he thought. Jeff and Lester –or Jeffster! As they insisted to be called- had this habit of staying in the store at night, 'working on their music', which meant ingesting copious amounts of alcohol and watching weird stalker-ish videos of their muse, a girl who worked at a Delhi across the store. He opened the door and said, "Guys, I already told you, you can't…" but froze and instinctively did _the Morgan_ when he saw three guns aiming at him.

When Chuck opened the door, Casey, Sarah and Graham himself reached for their guns. The three of them were still pointing them at the intruder when Orion exclaimed, "Charles! What are you doing here?" he then turned to Graham and told him, "It's ok, Langston, he's my son. You can put your guns down now."

Graham nodded and Sarah was the first one to do so, and safely tucked it in the back of her jeans. Her heart was racing in her chest and she could barely breath. Chuck Bartowski, Nerd Herder, was Orion's son.

"That was so cool, you guys! Can you do that again?" Everybody turned to look at Bryce, who was sporting an excited grin.

Even Chuck slowly took his hand off his face and peeked inside the room, focusing his gaze on his father. Straightening and trying to hide his embarrassment, he gestured frantically with his hands as he almost yelled, "Dad! What the hell is this? Anyone could have walked through the door right now. What are you doing? And who are these people?" He finally looked around and saw a man in a suit standing right next to his father and looking at him intently. In front of the couch there was another man, who was still holding his gun and narrowing his eyes at him. Sitting on the couch was… Kyle Anderson? Smiling like a kid in a candy store –Chuck had no idea why. Next to him, still standing and sporting a rather horrified look was… "Eva?" he whispered in shock.

She tried to smile, but failed miserably. Chuck could hear the guilt behind her words when she spoke. "Hi, Chuck."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** many of you were worried about Sarah's situation and how Chuck was going to find out. I hope this helps to ease your concern, and I also hope you like the way I decided to write it. I will try to update as soon as I can, but I'm starting to study now and I also have another story in progress. But don't worry; I fully intend to finish them both. Thanks again for reading, and, as I said before, reviews are greatly appreciated.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Hello there! I hope you're all having a great weekend. I should be studying right now, but I felt guilty for not finishing this chapter before, so here I am.

You'll be happy to know that I have a beta now, who's none other than the awesome **ShinyJayne20** *pause for applause* so you'll have to thank her for making this much better than it was.

I want to thank her, obviously, for going over this chapter in no time. Also, I'd like to say 'thank you' to the people who are always helping me in one way or another, **Aerox** (who deservedly won the Best New Author Awesome Award *new pause for applause*) and both **charahtwins**.

And of course, thank you guys for reading, reviewing and putting the story in your favorites and alerts and just being awesome.

I hope you enjoy this. I don't own Chuck. 

* * *

><p><em><strong>Chapter Three<strong>_

After what felt like hours and two failed attempts to articulate any words, Chuck was finally able to mumble, "Wh-How… Why—you're here…?"

He was still looking at Sarah, and she was very aware that the other people in the room were watching her too as she tried her best to come up with some kind of response.

"Mr. Bartowski," Graham came to the rescue, although Sarah suspected he wasn't exactly doing it for her sake. "Please, take a seat."

Chuck glanced at the man and defiantly stated, "No, I don't want to take a seat! I want to know what the hell is going on here!"

"Mr. Bartowski," Graham's tone was inflexible this time. "I'm afraid I'll have to insist." His eyes were dark and his posture radiated authority.

Stephen took a step closer to his son and pleaded with him, "Chuck, please, just do what he says."

Seeing that he had no choice, Chuck did as he was told. From the corner of his eye, he saw the tall blue-eyed man relax and sit down on the couch while "Eva" (that probably wasn't even her real name) sat on the armrest and stared at the floor. Chuck diverted his attention from the two, focusing back on man that was standing in front of him.

But the man did not address him like he expected. Instead, he turned and spoke directly to his father. "Well, Stephen, I certainly wasn't expecting… this."

Chuck noticed his father's narrowed eyes. "Nobody was, Langston. But Charles is my son, and if you want my help, you're not going to do _anything_ to him, is that clear?"

"How can I be sure he's not a threat? How do I know we can trust him?"

"Because he's my son," Stephen simply stated.

Graham was opening his mouth again when he heard Chuck ask, "Is anyone going to tell me what is going on here? Who are you people? And what can possibly be so important that you can't tell me?"

Graham turned to look at him. "Mr. Bartowski, my name is Langston Graham and I am the Director of the CIA."

Chuck froze for about ten seconds. Graham watched as his eyes widened and his mouth dropped. Then, Chuck did something he wasn't expecting. He burst out laughing. Of all the reactions he had imagined, this one wasn't one of them.

Sarah buried her head in her hands. Casey grunted in disapproval and Stephen winced.

"Oh, my God…" Chuck started. "That was a good one. Dad, I don't know who this guy is, but he's good! He almost got me there for a second," he said between laughs. The room fell silent when he finally recovered, and for the first time, he noticed nobody else was laughing. In fact, they were all acting as if he had done something really stupid. And, judging by the look on Graham's face, he had.

"Mr. Bartowski," his tone was ice cold when he spoke and Chuck swallowed instinctively. "As I said before, I'm the Director of the CIA, and this is a matter of national security. I'm sure you can understand how important this is and why you can't tell anyone about what you saw here today."

"You… you're telling the truth, aren't you?" Chuck stammered. "This is not a prank?"

Graham was losing his patience. "Mr. Bartowski, we don't do pranks."

Chuck straightened in his seat and nodded, trying to process this new information. "But what… why are you here? What does my father have to do with the CIA?"

Stephen and the Director exchanged brief glances, and after the former gave him a tiny nod, Graham said, "We are here because your father has been a CIA operative for the past thirty five years and we needed his help."

"What? CIA operative? That is not possible!" Chuck stood up and look at his father as he desperately asked, "Dad, tell me this isn't true!"

Stephen looked defeated. "I can't, Charles. He's telling you the truth."

Chuck was dumbfounded. "But how? Does mom know about this? What about Ellie? And what is exactly that you do and why are these people here?"

"Charles… your mom knows," the elder Bartowski sighed. "She's always known. I never told you or your sister because I… because _we_ wanted to protect you. And I could never have imagined that this was the way you were going to find out." Stephen shook his head. "And now, a… situation has come up and they need my help again."

"What situation? What happened?" Chuck demanded worriedly.

"Well…" Stephen started, but he was quickly interrupted.

"I'm afraid we can't let you in on the details, Mr. Bartowski," said Graham.

"Langston," Stephen called. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

Graham scowled, but still nodded and they both headed out of the room. Chuck watched them leave with a frown.

"What is it, Stephen?" he asked as soon as they closed the door.

"Look, I know this is important and everything, but I know my son, and I know he's not going to say anything. Besides, I was thinking that he may be of help with this little problem we have."

Graham studied Orion's face as he spoke. He had always been… peculiar. And now he was asking him to reveal the CIA's best kept secret to a civilian, no less.

Sensing Graham's skepticism, Stephen added, "Langston, I can't do this on my own, and you said it yourself, I'm the only one left. I'm very grateful for what you did all those years ago to protect me, but if you want me to get involved, you need to let me do this on my own way. And I'm telling you, he would make a very valuable asset."

"So you're not just doing this in fear that something may happen to him now that he knows?" Graham sharply questioned.

Stephen swallowed. "I've been in this business long enough to know how people like you deal with things," he admitted. Graham clenched his jaw, but said nothing. "However, if you assure me nothing will happen to him, I believe you. But I really need some help, and I trust my son."

Graham turned and stared at the wall. As paranoid as he may have been, he trusted Stephen Bartowski. He knew him, and he knew his family. He was aware that he had been the most prolific scientist the Agency had ever had, until he had to disappear after the Intersect project debacle. And even after that, he kept serving his country, albeit off the record. Stephen was a true patriot, and Graham would've been surprised if the son he and his wife had raised wasn't one too.

Graham sighed, and for once, he decided to go with his gut instead of protocol. "Fine." Stephen looked genuinely shocked when he looked at him. "Your son can help. But," he added ominously, "this is extremely sensitive, and he can't talk about this with anyone. You better make that damn clear, Orion, because if he makes _one_ mistake, I won't be able to protect him from anything that happens to him."

In the home theater room, Chuck was still trying to recover from everything he had learned in the past ten minutes. He could see the large man sitting stiffly on the couch and staring threateningly at him. He internally cringed; as if he wasn't intimidated enough already.

Eva still hadn't looked at him, and that kind of annoyed him, but she was now busy trying to recover her gun, which had been stolen by Kyle, if that was even his name. As they struggled, he wondered what had happened to him. Chuck didn't remember him behaving so…immaturely the last time they crossed paths.

"I just wanted to take a close look at it!" he cried, as Eva stood up and tucked the gun in her waistband again.

"Well, it's not a toy, you could hurt yourself or someone else!" she yelled, clearly angry.

He just gave her a hurt look and stared at his lap. Just when Chuck was mustering the courage to talk to her, his father and Graham came back.

"Mr. Bartowski," Graham announced. "Your father has requested that I let you help him with his work this time. You're free to do whatever you want, but I highly recommend that you accept. It's the safest choice for everyone."

Chuck frowned. 'The safest choice'? What had he meant…? _Wait a second, does he mean they're going to… no, I watch too many movies. Surely they wouldn't_… He saw the worried look clouding his dad's face and he knew that the overused expression 'If I told you I'd have to kill you' wasn't _just_ an expression.

Chuck realized that everyone in the room was now staring at him and cleared his throat. Knowing he didn't really have a choice, he said, "I will. I'll help him with anything I can. And you can trust me; I would never betray my country." The man on the couch grunted, and his father let out a relieved breath. "But I would love to know what I'm going to be helping you with, dad," he added.

Before Stephen could speak, Graham started talking. He told him the same story he had told Sarah and Casey, and he saw the horrified look that grew on his face as he explained what the Intersect project was about. He also noticed that, even when Stephen had seemed disgusted before, he was now beyond ashamed, as his son learned what he had done in the past.

"I… I can't believe this, dad. You… you actually worked on this?" Chuck asked, clearly disturbed by what he was hearing.

Stephen knew someday he would have to inform his kids about his past sins, but he never thought it was going to be today. Nothing could've prepared him to face the perturbed expression in his son's eyes as he looked at him in disbelief. "Yes. Yes, I did, Charles. And I spent the past few decades regretting it. But that doesn't change the fact that I tried to play God and now the consequences are terrible."

Chuck's anger died down a little as he stared into his father's eyes. They were filled with remorse and shame, and he knew he regretted what he had done. He just nodded and turned to face Graham, "So, what happened now? Why do you need my help?"

"I think it's time that we make the proper introductions," deflected Graham. "This is Agent Sarah Walker," Sarah clenched her jaw and managed to maintain eye contact. She noted Chuck's look of betrayal and felt like something inside of her was breaking. She just gave him a tiny nod and Graham continued on. "This is Colonel John Casey, with the NSA," the man grunted and stared carefully at Chuck. "Agents Larkin, Walker and Casey," Graham pointed to each of them as he introduced them, "were undercover because we suspected there was a criminal living in the suburbs. As it turns out, the whole neighborhood was just a cover for this criminal organization. They abducted Agent Larkin and ran the test on him, but it was unsuccessful. Apparently, they only managed to wipe his memory."

So _that_ was why he was acting like a little kid. "So they basically Gilderoy Lockhart-ed him?" asked Chuck humorously. The spies gave him a blank stare, like he had grown a second head, or suddenly started speaking Klingon. "That's… a Harry Potter reference, never mind," he mumbled.

What surprised him next was that the big, imposing Colonel barked with laughter. When Chuck shot him an incredulous look, the man just shrugged and said, "What? I have a kid!"

Chuck smiled. It was good to know that spies weren't completely heartless. They were human just like him. A little more constipated when it came to dealing with emotions, but humans nonetheless. People with ambitions, dreams, a family, and apparently a sense of humor too.

Now Chuck wasn't nearly as freaked out as he was before.

Graham cleared his throat. "Your father is going to run some tests on Agent Larkin and he requested that I let you help him. We'll be reopening the secret base tomorrow morning. Since my agents' cover has been blown, they'll be staying at the safe house." He addressed his father. "Stephen, you know how to contact me. My people will be here tonight after the store closes to equip Castle. If you need anything, just call." With that, he turned around and headed out of the room, leaving a wide-eyed Chuck behind. Casey followed suit, dragging agent Larkin with him after exchanging a few words with agent Walker.

Chuck was about to say something to his dad when he noticed Eva, or Sarah, stopping in the doorway, her left hand on the doorframe. She suddenly turned around and looked at him, but immediately averted her eyes.

_Now what?_ Sarah asked herself. She had to go, but she found herself wanting to give Chuck some kind of explanation. She knew she didn't owe him, she had just been doing her job all along, but she also felt bad about lying to him. And, if she was honest, she didn't like the way he had looked at her after finding out who she was –_what_ she really was.

She glanced at him again, and she could see his frown and his clenched jaw as he quickly stared at the floor. She knew she was probably the last person he wanted to talk to right now, but she couldn't help it. She mustered up the courage to take a step closer to him.

She opened her mouth, but she didn't know what to say. He looked… hurt. Anger, she could deal with, but hurt? And why would he be hurt in the first place? That made absolutely no sense. Just like it made no sense for her being there, standing in front of this man, trying to apologize for not doing anything wrong. She tried again. "Chuck, I… I couldn't… you know I couldn't tell you… right?" Even if it came out just a little louder than a whisper, she knew he had heard her.

He looked at her, really looked at her for the first time since he had entered the room and his brown eyes softened a little. I wasn't her fault, he thought. She didn't owe him anything but still, here she was, trying to apologize for being great and saving the world, and he was being an ass just because some ridiculous part of him felt like he had a right to be upset that everything she had told him had been a lie. Because of course, his feelings were more important than national security.

He was embarrassed for putting her in this situation, and he was going to apologize when his father intervened. "You two know each other?" he asked.

"I… uh, I went to her house once, I mean her cover house –is that how you call it, by the way? And it was twice, I went twice to help her with her laptop. Well, the second time was actually to fix her husband's –I mean her partner's laptop… And she also came here to get a new one… I promised I would help her, so I did…" Chuck stammered. He winced inwardly at his nervous and slightly incoherent rant.

Sarah had to school her features to remain neutral, hiding the smile that threatened to spread on her face after his adorable babble.

Stephen's face lightened with recognition. "Oh, this is the woman you said was going to come to the store!" Chuck blushed furiously, focusing his gaze on the floor one more time, and this time, Sarah did smile. He had told his father about her. Maybe she had made just as good impression on him as he had on her. "This is such a small world, isn't that right, Agent Walker?"

For some reason, Orion sounded suspicious. She had no idea why, it was not like she had planned to meet his son and drag him into the spy world. In fact, if she would've had any saying on that specific matter, she would've strongly refused to do so. Hell, she had done everything in her power to stay away from him. But Graham had said Orion was paranoid, and she guessed he had a good reason, after working for the Agency for so many years and doing such a sensitive work. So she just nodded her agreement and, with her best smile, told him, "Please, call me Sarah, Mr. Bartowski."

He just gave her a serious look and headed out the room, stopping at the doorway to cast one final glance at her.

Chuck was shocked by his dad's behavior. As soon as he left the room, he started to apologize. "I'm sorry about that; I don't know what's gotten into him. He's not usually so rude…"

She interrupted him. "It's ok, Chuck. I'm sure he's upset that you're suddenly being pulled into this world, and I can't really blame him."

He seemed confused. "What do you mean?"

She sighed heavily and plopped onto the couch. She fidgeted with her hands as she spoke. "I mean that this—what we do, is not safe. And you heard what Graham told us about this Intersect project. It's dangerous and I wouldn't want anyone I care about to get involved in this either. This job… it changes you. I think your father is scared that that could happen to you."

"But I'm not going to be spying or anything," He said as he sat down next to her. "I mean, I'm just going to help him, and he hasn't even told me what he needs my help with yet. It's not like I'm going to be shooting guns and chasing bad guys," he said with a hint of a smile in his voice.

She chuckled lightly and looked at him. All of a sudden, she was very aware of his proximity. A warm feeling spread through her, while she struggled to keep her eyes from darting to his lips. He was sporting the gentlest smile she had ever seen and it took her all her will power to hold back a dreamy sigh. That would've made her look _so_ unprofessional.

Knowing that she needed to keep her distance from him if she wanted to preserve her dignity, she shifted so she was resting her back on the arm of the couch facing him, creating a little more space between them. She could still smell his aftershave, but she would have to deal with it. She was a trained CIA agent, after all. "I know, and your dad knows that too. But it's not like in the movies, you know? This is not a glamorous job. We have to lie and pretend and even kill people. And your father lived in this world for a long time. I can't say I blame him for not trusting me. I did lie to you."

"Yeah, but you had to, right? You can't just go telling everyone you're a spy. I understand…" he suddenly frowned and added, "Unless you knew about my father and me, and the laptop and everything was a lie."

"What? No! I didn't know who you were when I called. I didn't know your father owned the store. Hell, I didn't even know who your father was until an hour ago!" she exclaimed defensively.

"Ok, ok, I believe you," he smiled a little as he gestured with his hands for her to calm down. They felt silent for a few moments. Finally, Chuck decided to ask her what he was dying to know. "So…" he started, staring at his feet. He swallowed and met her curious gaze. "You and Kyle… I mean, Agent Larkin… you're not…?"

Sarah's eyes widened when she understood what he was asking. "No! God, no!" she replied a little more emphatically than she had originally planned to. "We never… I would _never_…" seeing that she was very close to start stammering, she stopped herself and started again. "No, we're definitely not together. Not at all."

She glanced at Chuck to assess his reaction, but he was looking down again. After a few seconds, and just when she was starting to get nervous, he looked her straight in the eye and said with a tiny grin, "That's uh… that's good."

She felt her lips curling on their own volition, and she let out a shaky breath. "Is it?" she asked, encouraged by his words.

"Yeah, I think it is." He was openly smiling now, and she was positive she had never seen anything more gorgeous in her whole life.

"And why is that?"

_Because I could never have a chance with you if you were married_, thought Chuck.

She noticed the change in his features as soon as she asked the question and wondered what she had done wrong. Was she really _that_ rusty?

"Because… because I'd really like to get to know you better." _That's it, like a band aid_, he though, _fast and painless_. Except that, if she turned him down, there would be pain. A lot.

She blushed at his boldness, because she hadn't been expecting it. And she also felt what most people would've called butterflies, but Agent Sarah Walker didn't get butterflies. In a shy tone that was foreign to her and throwing caution out the window, she almost whispered, "Me too."

She knew he had heard her because that dazzling smile was threatening to split his face again. Their moment was interrupted by the buzz of her phone.

"Sorry," she mumbled as she read the text. It was Graham's. She had told Casey she would meet them at the house, but that had been almost half an hour ago and they had work to do, and she still had to get the groceries she was supposed to be buying right now. With an apologetic smile, she stood up. "I'm sorry, Chuck, it's my boss. I really need to go now."

He stood up as well. "Oh, yeah, no problem. I get it… you need to save the world and all." She chuckled at his words and made her way to the automatic doors. She stopped there, not really knowing what to say. Fortunately, Chuck didn't seem to appreciate the silence either, so he was the first to break it.

"So, uh… I'll see you later?" he asked, a hopeful look on his face.

Sarah was certain that she was sporting the same ridiculous grin. And for once, she didn't care. "Yes. I think we'll be seeing each other more often now."

As if it were possible, his smiled widened. "Great! So… have a nice day."

"You too, Chuck," she said, as she finally stepped out of the store.

The morning sun was bright and shiny, and Sarah thought she hadn't felt this good in a long, long time. 

* * *

><p>Chuck kept his eyes on Sarah as she walked away. A few moments later, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned around and found his dad looking intently at him. "We should talk, Charles."<p>

He nodded and followed Stephen to his office. His dad made his way to his chair behind the desk and sat there, but remained silent. He seemed to be immersed in his own thoughts, staring at his lap, a deep frown darkening his expression.

Finally, he looked up and said, "I don't really know what to say here, Chuck. I never thought I'd be having this conversation with you. Not so soon, at least, and certainly not under these circumstances." He paused, but Chuck kept quiet. "I want you to know that I regret what I did. All those things Graham told you about, the Intersect project… I'm not proud about it. And I can assure I… _we_, suffered the consequences."

"What do you mean?" Chuck inquired, confused by his dad's words.

Stephen sighed heavily. "Well… I was the project's leader, but that's not exactly the reason why Langston came to me today. When we first started working on the assignment, we were a group of thirteen scientists. All of us graduated in the best colleges of the country. Now, almost thirty years later, I'm the only one left." He clenched his jaw and started talking again, but this time, he seemed very affected. "What I'm about to tell you can't be found in any record, because they were destroyed, along with _all_ the evidence." Chuck didn't like the sound of that, but he didn't want to interrupt his father. "We started working on the Intersect project and after two years of research, we were ready to run thefirst test on a subject. A _human_ subject. Because of the secret nature of said project, we couldn't openly ask for volunteers, so one of our colleagues offered to download the beta Intersect.

"You have to understand that we thought it was going to work. If I would've had even the slightest doubt, I wouldn't have let Hartley do it. But we were absolutely sure everything was going to be fine. So we did, we let him download the Intersect. It was…" he trailed off, and needed a moment to pull himself together. Chuck waited patiently, giving his father the time he needed to recover. Finally, Stephen continued, "It didn't work out as we thought it would. Hartley seemed fine at first, but after a few days of keeping him under strict observation we realized he had changed. And after a month, he was unrecognizable. He was a completely different person. He had always been a nice guy, always joking around, and I considered him to be one of my best friends. But after the download, he turned… violent. He didn't care for anything or anyone but him."

Chuck winced. He couldn't imagine how his dad must have felt, knowing that he had done so much harm to a dear friend. It has hard to understand why had he agreed to the download in the first place, but then again, he had never worked for the government or felt the pressure that obviously came with it. He glanced at his dad, urging him to go on with his story.

"In the meantime, we were ordered to keep working on the Intersect, and to fix its flaws. This time, we were told specifically what we were expected to do, and at first, most of us refused. But you can't just say 'no' to the CIA. We all had families to protect, so we kept working. The government wanted us to create a killing machine, but they needed to be able to control them. That's when Howard suggested we erased their brains first and programmed the subjects directly with the download. That way, we wouldn't have to deal with any surprises, like Hartley's sudden change of personality."

"Did you ever know what happened to him?" Chuck asked.

Stephen nodded slowly, briefly closing his eyes, compunction written all over his face. "The CIA locked him up in a mental institution, but it was just a matter of time before some people started asking questions. So one day, they found him dead in his cell. Suicide, they said, but we all knew it was a lie. After that, we were sure it was just a matter of time for them to come after us. But we kept working nonetheless. The day after the new Intersect was finished, Cooper died in a car accident. The police report said he had been drunk, but everybody who was close to him knew he didn't drink. A week later, Nolan was killed in what the police said was a robbery that went wrong. At that point, we knew for sure they were coming after us."

"They?" Chuck furrowed his brows. "Who's 'they', dad?"

Stephen gave him a sad smile. Chuck thought he had never seen his father look so old and tired. "The same people who had hired us in the first place, Charles."

Chuck's eyes widened. "You mean… the CIA? But you're still working for them! They tried to kill you?"

Stephen stared at his son, studying his face. Of course he could understand his reaction. He didn't have a clue what was like to live with the fear of not knowing if you were coming home every day. He didn't know what was like to have a wife and a baby to protect and the feeling of impotency for not being really able to do it well. He was just too good, too innocent to ever imagine those kinds of things.

Ever since he was a little kid, Chuck seemed determined to see the best in people, to expect the best from everyone. It was only logical that everything he was hearing now sounded extraneous to him. Stephen inwardly wished his son hadn't decided to come to the store early that morning. Now, the world he was describing to him was going to be Chuck'sworld too. He just hoped he had it in him to survive.

He remembered when he graduated from college. That day a CIA agent approached him and offered him a job. 'The opportunity of a lifetime,' he had said. And in many ways, he had been right. Two weeks later, he had met his handler and future wife. Two years after that, they were married and expecting their first child.

The intense look in his son's eyes brought him back to the present, and he smiled a little as he patiently explained, "The CIA had ruined a man's life. Can you imagine what a disaster it would've been if that story went public? They needed to make sure nobody was ever going to talk."

Chuck looked lost. "But you're alive… How?"

_Oh, God, here it comes_, Stephen thought. He was never going to hear the end of it when his wife found out he had told their son she was a spy without her being present. But it had to be done. He swallowed and said, "Because I had… eh… a little help from the inside."

Chuck's scowl intensified. "What do you mean?"

"He means my old partner gave us a hand."

Both Chuck and Stephen turned to look at the door, where Mary Bartowski was standing, leaning lazily against the door frame, her arms crossed above her chest.

Chuck was dumbstruck. He didn't even try to speak, because he knew it would've been futile. He vaguely wondered if it was possible he had fallen into an alternate universe, where everybody he knew was a spy or worked for the government. He took a mental note to check if Skip Johnson worked for the KGB later. Or maybe Jeff was Batman. At this point, nothing would surprise him anymore, he was sure of that.

His mom's amused chuckle brought him back from his musings. He just stared at her as she made her way over the desk and leaned against it, facing him.

"So, you don't have any questions?" His mother asked in amazement. "I guess we've finally found the way to make him shut up, Stephen."

The unfair comment made him able to finally pick up his jaw. "Oh, ha-ha-ha," he mockingly laughed. "That's really fun, mom, seriously. You basically just told me you're a spy and now you're making fun of me?" Once he started, he couldn't stop. In less than three hours he had found out that everything he thought he knew was a lie. And he was pissed. "I can't believe everything's been a lie! All these years! Thirty years! I don't know what to think anymore…" he stood up and started pacing around, mumbling, his rant going out of control, as it usually did when he was freaking out.

Mary decided to stop him before he lost it. "Chuck."

He was staring at the ground as he kept moving around the room in circles. "… and all she can do is laugh… Their own son, they've been keeping me in the dark for my entire life…"

She tried again, a little louder this time. "Chuck…"

"… and now I find out I've been raised by the freaking Rosenbergs!"

"Chuck!"

He stopped his pacing and looked up, as he was trying to find where the scream came from. His eyes were a little unfocused, and Mary had to stifle a laugh when he tiredly shook his head and feel back on the chair he had been occupying until a few minutes ago. "First of all, the Rosenbergs worked for the Soviet Union and were executed before you were born, so you don't have to be upset about being raised by two communists."

"Yeah, because _that's_ what upset me," he dryly said, narrowing his eyes at her.

Stephen tried to remain quiet and not show how much he was enjoying his wife's little act.

"Ok. I know you're probably a little angry right now…" seeing her son's incredulous glare, she rephrased. "Fine. Extremely angry." She barely resisted the temptation of rolling her eyes. "You have to know that we couldn't say anything. The less you knew, the safer you were. We didn't want to put you or your sister in danger. And that is the only reason why we didn't tell you the truth before."

Chuck crossed his arms and looked away, pretending to ignore her, even though he was listening carefully to every word.

That petulant gesture made Mary lose her temper. "Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were interested. I guess we'll just leave the explanations for another time. Maybe when you decide to behave like an adult again."

Chuck winced. He was thirty years old, yet his mom could make him feel like he was eight again whenever she used that tone. Reluctantly, he looked up.

Stephen smiled, amused by his son's behavior. If only he knew how similar he was to his mother, he would probably cry.

"Ok, I'm listening," he mumbled.

Mary quirked an eyebrow and cocked her head to the side. "Great. As I was saying, my old partner intervened and saved our lives. By the way, he called me and told me what happened, that's why I decided to come over and see how you were dealing with… all of this."

"Wait… so you're saying you were partners with Graham?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

"CIA Director Langston Graham?"

Mary smiled. "Yes, Chuck."

"Wow. I mean… wow." Everything was starting to sink in and Chuck was finally starting to feel impressed. "I guess all those 'business' trips weren't exactly for business, am I right?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Wow." Suddenly, Chuck started to realize what had been right in front of his eyes all the time, but he had been too distracted to acknowledge. His parents worked for the CIA. Ergo, his parents were spies. That pretty much gave him bragging rights for… well, _forever_.

A huge grin formed in his face, his eyes lighted up and he jumped up from his seat. Both Stephen and Mary recognized the signs. The nerd had taken control. They exchanged proud smiles and braced themselves for what they knew was coming.

"Oh-my-God!" If his voice would've been just a few octaves higher he would've sounded just like Janice, but he was too excited to be embarrassed. "Do you guys know what this means? I have spies as parents! My _own_ parents work for the freaking CIA! Who needs James Bond and all that crap when you have the real deal right in front of you? I want to know everything! Oh, mom, you have to teach me to throw those ninja stars thingies! And maybe a little kung fu, you know… I'm sure with all the spy genes I'll be able to master it in no time…" he was so immersed in his own ramblings that he didn't even acknowledge when his parents both burst out laughing. The mere thought of Chuck mastering kung fu was enough to make them lose it, considering the only sport he was really good at was chess.

"Or maybe you can teach me how to shoot a gun. And how about all those gadgets?" He turned to his father. "Oh, man, I bet your car has ejector seats! Or machine guns concealed in the headlights! Why wouldn't you tell me about the machine guns? I would never use them, but at least I would get to see Morgan's face as I showed him…"

He was talking so fast that Mary wasn't even sure he actually knew what he was saying. And as amusing as it was, she wanted to make something very, very clear. "Chuck!" After the second time she called his name, he seemed to snap out of it and come back to the real word. Now that she had his full attention, she said, "I know this is all very exciting for you now you've decided to embrace it instead of hating us, but you have to understand that nobody, and let me say it very clear, _absolutely nobody_ can know about what your father and I do for a living. And that goes for you too, now you decided to help your dad. Do you understand this?"

Chuck pouted. "Yes," he reluctantly mumbled.

"I need you to tell me that you understand, Chuck, this is important."

Chuck shook his head. Damn it, she was going to make him actually say it. "I understand, mom, I can't tell anyone about us working for the CIA."

Mary smiled. "Good boy."

Chuck's pout intensified and he looked like a giant kid who had been given the world's largest candy and, at the same time, ordered not to eat it. _There goes a lifetime of bragging rights_, he bitterly thought.

Stephen tried to show his son some sympathy. "At least you can talk about it with us," he said, smiling softly.

"I guess…" Chuck didn't sound so convinced though. Until an idea crossed his mind. "Would you tell me about your missions and stuff sometime?"

Mary and Stephen exchanged a look. "Well," Stephen said, glancing at his watch, "I guess we have a little time before we have to open the store to the public…" 

* * *

><p>Sarah got to the safe house about an hour after she left the shop. She had stopped by the grocery store on her way and picked up the essentials. After lunch, Graham—who had also left after taking Casey and Bryce back to the house—came back with some bad news.<p>

As it turned out, before they left for the meeting with Orion, he had ordered a team to go to the neighborhood and arrest anyone they knew were guilty, and had yet to flee. They were also tasked to collect every piece of evidence they could find. As Sarah suspected, they hadn't found anyone. They obviously knew the CIA was onto them, so it would've been a silly move to return to the cul-de-sac. And it was pretty obvious they weren't dealing with amateurs here. Graham also told them his team had retrieved a few computers and files, which he was going to send to Orion first thing in the morning. If there was one person who could understand anything Intersect related, it was him, Graham said.

Sarah smiled inwardly when he specifically asked her to keep a close eye on the Bartwoskis, especially the son, for he wasn't sure if he was trustworthy yet. But that was something she had already decided she was going to do for herself, whatever her orders were. Of course, her boss didn't need to know that.

When Casey asked what were they supposed to do from now on, Graham told them they were going to be working with another field agent who already knew about the Intersect project, but didn't exactly elaborated any further. Given the sensitive nature of the assignment, they couldn't afford to let just anyone in on the secret. The Director was determined to find these traitors as soon as possible, before they could do any more harm. They were clearly making progress on the Intersect development, because Larkin was the first subject that had survived, even if he had lost his memory. Graham also said he trusted Orion would be able to fix that. While Sarah kept her skepticism to herself, the Colonel snorted and mumbled something about being fed up with 'all that sci-fi crap' and having to sand it 'just because of a stiletto.' Sarah was sure she made the wiser choice when she decided not to ask.

Graham also emphasized the importance of the mission. Under no circumstances they were to be distracted from the primary objective of the assignment: to locate the threat and eliminate it. No risks could be taken as they were talking about a matter of national security and lives were on the line.

After he finished their briefing, he told them he had some business to attend and left the safe house again.

About an hour later, Sarah was bored out of her mind, so she decided this was just as good a time to take a shower as any. Casey was lying on the couch reading a book and Bryce was asleep on the bedroom, courtesy of the Colonel. He couldn't stand Larkin's antics now he acted like a child pretty much all the time, so he had tranqed him. When Sarah had reprimanded him for that, he had shrugged and said it was either tranq him or shoot him.

Sarah grabbed the clothes she had picked up that morning and made her way to the bathroom. After locking the door behind her, she quickly stripped and got into the shower stall. As the hot water started running through her body, she started slowly massaging her neck. She couldn't even remember the last time she'd slept. The past two days were a blur in her mind and she was exhausted. She felt the distinctive tales of a headache starting to surface and she cursed inwardly. It was not like she needed it.

In the past few hours, she had found out about the government's darkest secret—or at least, she hoped the Intersect project was the government's darkest secret—and she had been pulled into a world even more dangerous and complicated than the one she was used to live in. A world where apparently every limit was pushed and things she had thought were impossible until the day before could actually happen.

She had to agree with Casey on that, the whole thing did sound like the plot of a sci-fi movie. She would've never imagined when she was first recruited that one day she would be fighting an evil organization to prevent them to create an army to destroy the US government. And the craziest thing was that, to create said army, they were trying to upload information into people's brain. If she wouldn't have been painfully aware of the truth behind that crazy theory, she would've thought she was losing it. But the Director of the CIA had told them it was true himself, and then they had met the scientist who had basically created the Intersect. So no, she wasn't crazy yet, but that didn't mean she was entirely sane either. A sane person—a sane _agent_—would never let herself get close to a civilian in the middle of a mission. And she most definitely wouldn't want to get closer. Even if he was going to be working for the CIA for a while.

She wondered one more time what was it that made Chuck so special. He made her feel things she had never felt before. He made her smile. He made her laugh. He had even managed to make her blush. Before he came along, it had been years since she last blushed.

With a self-deprecating chuckle she thought about what people would say if they saw her like this. Carina and Zondra would make fun of her. Her dad would call her a sucker. But the truth was, she didn't care. She didn't care because every time she saw him, she didn't feel like a CIA agent. She didn't feel like the ruthless spy most people considered her to be. Every time she was with him, she was just Sarah. And even if _just_ Sarah had a little more of the shy, insecure girl she had been in high school than she would've liked, the fact remained that she was a girl, and she had finally met a nice guy.

It had been years since the last serious relationship she had had—if you could call sleeping with your old partner that—and she had given up. It wasn't like she wanted to settle down anyway. She knew nothing about being a girlfriend, or a wife, and being a spy was all she had. She couldn't picture herself frying corn dogs or serving frozen yogurt for a living. That would've been ridiculous. But she had to admit that, whenever she imagined her future, it seemed kind of lonely, even if she would be having all the adventures she had dreamed of when she was a little girl. Sarah knew something was missing in her life, but she didn't want to put a name on it. And she was terrified that, if she did get close to Chuck, she would find out that that was what had been missing all along.

And that wasn't the only issue. He was an incredible guy and he deserved so much better. He deserved something real, and she couldn't give him real because _she_ wasn't real. Her job wasn't real. Her life wasn't real. And at the end, she would end up breaking his heart, and probably hers too.

She stepped out of the shower, and wrapped herself in a towel. She thought about the conversation they had had that morning and how adorable he had looked when he told her he wanted to get to know her better. He had seemed to be waiting for her rejection, but she couldn't say no to him. Not when she was staring into his warm brown puppy-dog eyes. Not when she herself wanted to know him better.

When she admitted that, she realized that she couldn't just stay away from him. They were going to be working together, seeing each other every day, and even if there was a chance that she would find out that he wasn't as nice as he seemed, she knew it was rather slim. She was already thinking about him more than she should; and she was sure he thought about her just as often too. She couldn't deny the attraction between them, but she didn't want him to get hurt. And she had to admit, she didn't want to get hurt either.

Growling in frustration, she got dressed. She would have to deal with Chuck the best she could. After all, Graham had made very clear that the priority was the mission. As it always was. The difference this time was that she wasn't really sure if it was going to be a priority for her. She opened the bathroom door to find Casey asleep on the couch, and Bryce still out in the bedroom. _Great_, she thought. _More alone time to think_. Now, she just needed to find a way to get certain nerd out of her head.

If she was being honest with herself, the chances of that ever happening weren't very good. 

* * *

><p><em>My parents are spies<em>. It had been hours since Chuck had had that conversation with his parents, but he still couldn't quite believe it. _My parents are spies_.

Of course, that explained a lot. Like why his mom had sometimes come home after those 'business trips' with bruises and cuts. Like why his father had named their electronics store 'The Hunter.' It had always intrigued him, but after finding out that his codename was Orion, it all made much more sense. And he actually found it kind of sweet—albeit in a twisted way—that his mom had taken her own alias from the stories she used to read to him and Ellie when they were little.

_My parents are spies_. That was so badass he couldn't even start to describe how excited he was. _Orion and Frost_. They had told him stories about how they met and about the few times they had been together in the field. He had always admired them, but after finding out what they really did for a living, he respected them even more. Because while they had been doing this incredibly important work, they had also been able to stay together for all those years and at the same time, raise their two kids. They had never missed a birthday, or a soccer match. They had even been there when he played Perchik in his high school's production of the_ 'Fiddler on the Roof.'_

The only thing he regretted was that Ellie couldn't know about all of this. And he knew that if she ever found out, she was going to be mad at him for not telling her. But his mom had been very clear about the 'not telling anyone' policy he would have to follow from now on. On the bright side, his dad had been right. At least he could talk to them.

And he could talk to Sarah too, he thought. After all, she was also a spy and she was the one who had said they were going to be seeing each other more often. That thought alone was enough to bring a smile to his face.

Yes, he had been thinking about her too. How could he not? She was amazing. He had been sure she was going to turn him down. But she didn't. She had actually said she wanted to get to know him better too. And that had put him in a great mood for the rest of the day. He was already planning on asking her out, but he didn't want to scare her off. Besides, they had time.

His smile broadened when he remembered how she had looked at him before leaving the store. Yup, it was there. He had definitely not imagined it the first time, and Ellie had seen it too, so he was almost sure she was as interested as he was. For the first time in a long, long while, he actually liked a girl and couldn't wait to see her again. He only hoped that all the national security stuff wouldn't get in their way. 

* * *

><p>Chuck woke up an hour earlier than he was used to. He looked at the clock on his nightstand and didn't even bother trying to go back to sleep. Once his brain reminded him of the previous day's events, his excitement wouldn't leave him alone. Besides, he was eager to see this secret base for himself.<p>

So he jumped out of bed, took a quick shower and got dress in less than twenty minutes. He decided he would grab some coffee and something to eat in his way to the store, so he left a note for Morgan in the kitchen table and took off.

When he got there, he didn't notice anything different. In fact, it looked like there was no one inside. With a disappointed sigh, he shrugged and stepped into the store. He had been sure he was going to find a lot of men and women in black suits carrying gadgets and supercomputers to wherever this secret base was, but the silence and emptiness only contributed to his disillusionment. Maybe he _did_ watch too many movies, after all.

He decided to wait for his parents, Graham and the other agents in the home theater room, where he could see them right away when they entered the store. He settled the box of donuts on the coffee table and was about to take a sip of his coffee when suddenly, the wall parted and Sarah seemingly came out of nowhere. Of course, that led him to spit his coffee and stain his white shirt, as he tried to look cool under Sarah's amused look.

"Sorry about that," she said, although her eyes were sparkling with mirth.

He smiled and stood up. "It's ok. I should've prepared myself for something like that. Are you here to take me to the Batcave?"

"Actually, I prefer to call it 'Castle'." This time, it was his mom's voice what startled him and made him spill the rest of his coffee with the sudden move he made with his arm.

"Gah! Mom! Why would you do that?" he turned to see Mary Bartowski smiling at him.

She shrugged nonchalantly. "Sorry, Chuck, I guess it just an old habit."

Chuck noticed the curious look Sarah was sporting as her eyes shifted between him and his mom. "Oh, I see you two haven't met yet. Sarah, this is my mom, Mary Bartowski, CIA. Mom, this is Sarah Walker, she's CIA too."

Mary smiled politely and extended her hand. "It's a pleasure, Agent Walker."

Sarah shook her hand. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped when she realized why the woman looked so familiar. "You… you're Frost!" she stammered.

"I see you've heard about me," Mary said with a pleased smile.

"Yes, I have. It's such an honor, Mrs. Bartowski. You're a legend in the Agency."

Mary chuckled. "Well, I'm sure not everything you've heard is real."

"You mean you didn't break up the uranium smuggling ring in '91?"

"Well, that _is_ true."

"And you didn't take down that human trafficking network in South America?"

Mary smiled again. "Ok, that one is true too."

"Mom!" exclaimed Chuck with a whine. "I practically beg you to tell me awesome stories about your spy career, and being poisoned with truth serum is the best you can come up with? Why didn't you tell me any of this?"

Mary looked at her son with a quirked eyebrow. "I thought you liked that truth serum anecdote."

"Well, yeah, but you didn't even have to shoot a gun in that one." Sarah smiled at the mother-son exchange she was witnessing.

"Ok, I'll tell you some of those later. Now, I believe people are expecting us?" Sarah nodded and pointed to the now open wall.

Mary stepped into the small space left between the home theater room wall and what now Chuck knew it was a door, and gestured them to join her. "Are you coming?"

Both Chuck and Sarah got into the well concealed elevator and Chuck watched in amazement as Sarah typed a code in a panel on her left. When she pressed enter, the door automatically shut and he felt the elevator going down. Again, a door opened before them and his eyes widened when he finally took the first glance at Castle.

He slowly climbed down the stairs, taking it all in. There were screens all over the place. In what seemed to be the conference room, there was a very long table, in front of a particularly big screen. There, his dad and Graham were chatting animatedly. He greeted them and continued his reconnaissance. The armory held more weapons than he could identify, and that was saying something, considering he was an expert Call of Duty player. He went down a hall and counted five holding cells. There was also a supply closet around the corner.

_Surprisingly spacious_, he thought, taking a look inside it. He found what he correctly assumed was some kind of training room. There was a mat in the floor and all different kinds of swords and other _cold weapons_ were neatly arranged around the fighting area. He also found the bathrooms and the showers. The place was huge and had always been under the store. He wondered if it had been closed right after the Intersect Project fiasco or if it had been used as a CIA base even after that. He couldn't remember ever seeing anything suspicious at the store when he was little, but he decided he was going to ask his dad anyway.

After he finished his exploration, he joined the others in the conference room.

"So, what do you think, Charles?" his father asked.

"It's amazing. I mean, I imagined it would be like this, but actually seeing it…" he trailed off as his gaze focused on the wall at his left. Everyone looked at him with a frown, but Stephen smiled. He knew exactly what his son was thinking.

Forgetting he was not alone, Chuck took a step forward and, leaning over, he whispered adoringly, "Oh, wow. I can't believe I'm this close to an actual DU-97. Freon-cooled, reconfigurable 30-teraflop architecture with modules for cryptanalysis and video processing. She's so beautiful!"

Graham, Sarah and his parents exchanged amused looks as he continued to examine the computer. A few moments later, the silence was broken by a grunt and Casey's words. "I guess this is what a nerdgasm looks like."

Chuck finally realized what he had been doing for the past five minutes and he blushed furiously, as he made his way to the table where the others were sitting.

"Hi, Casey. I… I didn't notice you were here before," he said, trying to sound casual.

The Colonel grunted again. "I just got here. It was my turn to babysit the moron." He nodded towards Bryce, who was uncomfortably seated in a swivel chair, apparently asleep.

"Is he… is he ok? He doesn't look too comfortable," Chuck said.

"Don't worry about him, Bartowski. I tranqed him, so he's not feeling anything right now, trust me."

Chuck swallowed involuntarily and nodded, avoiding eye contact. He had a feeling that Casey wouldn't think twice before tranquing him if he ever found him particularly annoying, so he decided it was better to just stay out of his way.

"Ok, now that we're all here," Graham started, "I'd like to go over a few things with you. First of all, Agent Frost, I want you to tell Agents Walker and Casey everything you know about the Intersect and the people who were involved in its development and the subsequent cover up. I want you to go over all their records, see if you can find any connection with the people that posed as Agents Walker and Casey's neighbors." He turned to look at Stephen. "Orion, you and your son will be working on recovering Agent Larkin's memories and figuring out how this new Intersect works. You already have every note, schematic and computer we found at the warehouse and in the neighborhood. If you need anything at all, you just have to call. I will have some people to deliver it immediately." Stephen nodded. Graham looked at his watch. "My flight leaves in forty minutes. I don't have to remind you how sensitive this assignment is. The future of the country may depend on this team, so failure is not an option. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Sir," choired the four spies.

"Good." He straightened and fixed his tie. The elder Bartowskis stood up. Graham extended his hand and Stephen shook it first. "Good luck, Orion," he said.

He turned to Mary and offered his hand. Instead of shaking it, she enveloped in a brief hug. "Goodbye, Langston," she smiled as he awkwardly tried to fix his suit. The man had been her partner for almost three years, and had helped to save her family. From her point of view, a handshake wasn't enough to show him her eternal gratitude.

Graham took a last glance at them, and Casey and Sarah nodded respectfully. Chuck waved his hand as the CIA Director walked out of Castle.

As soon as he was out of sight, Mary addressed Sarah. "Should we get to work?"

"Sure," she replied with a smile.

"Follow me. I told Langston to put all the files in the other room because I know Stephen likes to be closer to the computers, and we won't be using those anyway."

Sarah followed her and smiled at Chuck as she brushed against him in her way to the adjacent room. Chuck smiled back and Sarah thought he had never looked more adorable, with that enthusiastic look on his face, his coffee-stained shirt and his pocket protector.

Stephen turned to look at his son, who was sporting a goofy grin and decided it was time for them to start working too. When he heard his father call his name, Chuck sobered up and gave him a questioning look.

Stephen smiled and said, "I think your mother's got the right idea. What do you say if we get on this?"

"Sure." Chuck could barely contain his excitement. This was really happening. He was actually in an underground secret base, with his super-spies parents, a grumpy Colonel, a field agent who had gotten his memory erased and a gorgeous CIA agent, who just happened to like him. In his mind, things couldn't get any better.

"This is gonna be great!" he said with a giant grin.

Not even the loud grunt that followed his statement was able to diminish his enthusiasm. 

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** and that was chapter three. I don't want to make any promises because I'm starting to work on the next HMH chapter, so I guess I'll see you when I see you. Hopefully, it'll be sooner rather than later.

As always, reviews are greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading! 


End file.
